Feature

Shayera Moula

Most English Medium schools around Bangladesh need some kind of sector development. Whether it is the school structure, the school ground facilities or the entire process of disciplinary management, there has always been plenty of room for improvement.

However, it has been more than 35 years where the UK exam board Edexcel (formerly known as University of London Examinations Assessment Council) has been offering GCE O and A level qualifications in Bangladesh with the support of BC. This alone has raised the percentage of students able to go abroad with scholarships. So with this in mind, if the school grounds could be enhanced a little more then the scope for a bright educational sector is not far away.

Over the years, many complaints have made their way to the government and the governance board for education but those who tend to review it seem to have a very poor understanding of this area and its requirements. As a result, the surveys that are constantly made on schools every now and then have provided no solution for the educational system.

The schools who have been offering this qualification are obviously private schools and not directly regulated by Government apart from the guidance they get from UK exam board on overall quality issues. With the growth of English medium private school sectors and students, this sector has become a concern of Govt. of Bangladesh particularly about the schools curriculum, quality of teaching and its admin infrastructures.

Still so, with time, problems in schools such as management, quality teaching, resources for students and so on have yet to get better. There are still schools where the memorizing technique is still being used or too many students are crammed into one small class and so forth.

It was here they asked whether the British Council could help bring about a mainstream of guidelines for all the English Medium schools to follow. This in turn threw about a lot of dialogues and discussion after which it was decided that experts from UK would come to Bangladesh and arrange different workshops and training programs. Both British Council and the UK exam board Edexcel haven approached by school principals in recent years as well about their clear need to help schools here with good governance, management and quality which they feel need professional development.

It was decided that there would be three training programs throughout the year from which the second session was conducted only about a month ago. The trainers were Prof. Steve Martin and Ms. Maureen Martin who have strong teaching and school admin background. This training mainly targeted the Principals of all the English Medium schools. In this a one-day training in Dhaka, Sylhet and Chittagong a total of fifty two schools were involved.

This second session under the title "Managing schools for quality" focused on improving the standards of a school through self-evaluation. According to a handout provided by National College for School Leadership (NCSL), "self-evaluation is a process of reflection on practice, made systematic and transparent, with the aim of improving pupil, professional and organizational learning." It is a critical process of identifying a schools strengths and weaknesses.

Through these various self evaluation exercises most head teachers can be aware of the schools needs and expansion. The objectives were very precise and clear. Through these workshops, there would be a rise in performance in all the schools as well as cures for any underachievement.

The key target would be to "facilitate the development of a head teachers' network".

In general, "self evaluation" alerts most people about the trend to push down on financial responsibilities due to political or economical reasons. The isolation of schools competing unsuccessfully with their neighbors, together with recognition of the unhelpful effects on some schools can lead to a greater downfall for collaboration. Identifying these defects becomes the beginning in developing school properties and systems.

Experts from Professional Development and Training from Edexcel and The British Council displayed a circular diagram for their presentations indicating the "School Improvement Cycle". It was here that they asked the headmasters to focus on five necessity questions:

1. How well are we doing?
2. How do we compare with similar schools?
3. What more should we aim to achieve?
4. What must we do to make it happen?
5. Taking action and reviewing progress.

The Principals were handed out various questions and surveys ranging from the school climate, the school plans, classroom practices, parents and community support, outside inputs and so on. Pin pointing the successes and failures through words on paper is perhaps the most effective way to not only realize the scopes left for development but also lay out an organized set of to-do lists.

Based on such goals, the second session consisted of four activities. The very first one raised the question: "How well are we doing?" They were made to note whether the key people in school played their role and whether this evaluation has managed to lead an initiation for the school's long term goals.

After discussing how management skills can be applied and procedures for data collection, the second activity proceeded on assessing the school environment based on the questionnaires provided. Queries such as areas that need improvement, areas that the Principals are most proud of and so on were rated through a certain scale.

Activity three simply instructed to write down some examples or aspects of the schools which they would rate using a four point scale. For instance, one meant "never" or "unacceptable" and four meant "excellent" or "all the time" based on the statements given.

Finally for activity four there was a video shown of a classroom scenario and the Principals were requested to give it a rating and write their own reasons for it.

What happened therefore was not only a communal understanding of a brilliant standard of a school system but also uniformity in accepting that standard. Those who attended made it their primary aim to meet at least twice before the next session on account to unify their scope for developing their schools together. Those discussions will be reflected back to Edexcel to inform them about the advancement.

Clearly the prominent message to the Ministry of Education is that these are some ways through which they are helping schools invest in good governance. In light of the concerns about quality and the need for regulation expressed by the govt., this may be one way to raise awareness that the British Council, in partnership with Edexcel are helping schools develop better management and quality systems in Bangladesh.

There is no uniformity in the native of education in the English Medium schools in Bangladesh. This has become a great concern for the government and there is hope that through these transparency processes, the schools can come together for a cohesive maturity in the system of education.

In the end of the three sessions headed by Edexcel and the British Council, there will optimistically be a complete handbook or Manuel handed to each head teachers to format one justified set of rules and regulations in their schools. In such case, this will be really beneficial to all schools irrespective of which curriculum they follow.

Student of BRAC University