Education: Systemic analysis

Wasim Bin Habib

Photo: Amirul Rajiv

THE constitution of Bangladesh says the state shall adopt measures to establish a uniform, mass-oriented and universal system of education in the country. It also makes obligatory for the state arranging free and compulsory education to all children and relating education to the needs of the society.

Forty years into the country's independence, the aforementioned directives remain just noble words, thanks to the successive governments' -- irrespective of whether those were civil or military -- lack of zeal to comply with it.

The education system of the country still remains in chaotic state, and is getting compartmentalised day by day. There are chiefly three streams of education existing side-by-side in the country-- Bangla medium, English medium and Madrasa system. Long practices have given each of the streams its individual characteristics. Furthermore, the streams also have some sub-streams of their own. The existing primary education, for example, shows the divisiveness of education as admitted by the current education minister. This level has 11 systems of education.

The educational expenses have gone to a worrisome level in the last decade, but not quality in that line. People, the privileged ones, afford to send their children to expensive schools that claim to be providing standard education. On the other hand, the public schools, which are the last resorts of many middle-income groups, are suffering from numerous problems like shortage of efficient teachers and classrooms. The most-sought-after schools cannot accommodate all the aspirants while most of the rest are yet to come up with a minimum desired level of quality.

Any analysis into the disorganised state of education would blame the absence of a concrete education policy for this. It is of course a reality that there were some efforts for educational reforms: in the last 40 years eight commissions and committees have been formed to suggest necessary reforms to education in the spirit of improvement. The commissions and committees came up with their policy recommendations. But unfortunately lack of political will and narrow political culture of rejecting predecessor's initiatives of different governments obstructed the path of implementing the positive recommendations that could raise the standard of education to some level.

To fix the derailed education system of the war-torn newborn country, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman formed an education commission with eminent scholar, scientist and educationist Dr Qudrat-e-Khuda in 1974 as the head. Dr Khuda chalked out a scientific and pro-people education policy. But the policy did not get the governments' consideration after Bangabandhu's killing.

After coming to power in 1996, the then Awami League (AL) government took initiative to formulate an education policy in light of Dr Qudrat-e-Khuda's report. It formed a committee headed by Prof Shamsul Haque and the committee produced a policy in 1997. But, this policy was also abandoned after the change in government in 2001.

Following the legacy, the AL led grand alliance government this time also framed an education policy. It took the issue very seriously, and soon after assuming office in 2009 it formed a committee to formulate an education policy to achieve the goals of education and human resource development as enunciated in Vision 2021 of the government as well as AL's election manifesto.

The committee, headed by National Professor Kabir Chowdhury, assessed the reports of Qudrat-e-Khuda Education Commission and Shamsul Haque Education Committee and produced a draft report taking the present socio-economic condition and global set-up into consideration.

This time, the government tried to reach a national consensus over the policy. The committee discussed with the representatives of relevant organisations and held meetings in six divisions and considered opinions of many individuals who came forward. Moreover, the education ministry put the draft in its website for eliciting public opinion. Like the previous times, the draft report came under criticism by some religion-based political parties and organisations as the committee announced that the policy was framed in line with the spirit of the Liberation War. The education ministry then held a series of discussions with various organisations, including Muslim religious leaders to give the policy a national character. The government brought some changes in the policy but kept the basic features intact. The cabinet approved the National Education Policy 2010 on May 31 last year and the Parliament adopted it on December 7 last year.

The policy covers almost all aspects of formal education and provides guideline for implementation of policy strategies. It points out the major objective of education as flourishing humanity and making the citizens creative, freethinking, ethical, respectful of their and others' religions, free from all dogmas, tolerant of others' views, non-communal, patriotic and skilled ones so that they can lead the society towards development and advancement efficiently and effectively.

Some of the salient features of the policy are:
Introduction of preschool education and rearranging primary and secondary education system:

Due to lack of formal pre-schooling system in the country, a huge number of children, especially in the rural areas, don't find interest in education when they step in the formal education basically at grade III. Although privately-run schools have already been offering preschool education in many areas of the country, the state is yet to ensure it to all.

Those who can afford send their children to those privately run schools. Since the students, mostly from poor families in the rural areas, do not have primary introduction about education they don't find interest in education. With the view to creating their interest to education and schools and flourishing human qualities among the kids, the new policy suggested introducing pre-primary education for the five plus children. The government believes the pre-education would attract the kids to school and help reduce the drop out rate.

The policy recommends expansion of compulsory free primary education up to class-VIII from the previous class-V in phases at government and government-funded institutions. The extension of primary education is believed to be contributing much in accelerating literacy rate in the country. The policy considers the fact that the students would acquire knowledge of a certain level even if they were unable to continue their education after primary level due to poverty, and thus join work to assist their families.

In order to restructuring primary education, the policy says, infrastructural facilities of the existing all schools in primary level will be increased and new teachers will be appointed. The implementation of the extended primary education will be ensured to all children in phases by 2018, it reads.

The policy also advises merging of secondary level with the higher secondary education. The secondary education level would be from class IX to XII. The policy sets the aim of this level education is to make the students capable of participating in the job market as efficient people. To upgrade the secondary level, the policy directs to amalgamate grade XI and XII in the secondary schools and open grade IX and X at the existing colleges.

However, extending primary level to class VIII would be a massive challenge for the government, as it requires an extensive amount of time, fund and effort. The number of primary schools in the country is over 80,000, and developing school structures for the necessary extension would be colossal job. Besides, there are many high schools which also offer primary education. The government would face same challenge while extending the secondary level. The government will have to take a pragmatic step here. And most importantly, the government will have to start the process as quick as possible otherwise it may be too late to accomplish.

Emphasising on vocational education:
This policy gives importance on vocational and technical education taking the fact of global technological advancement into consideration. The unemployment rate of the country is increasing due to too many graduates in different streams of education. The new policy says after completion of grade five of primary education the students will have to take course on vocational education and information technology. On completion of the primary level, the students can get admitted in the vocational and technical education and can pursue their higher education on technical and vocational subjects. The education policy formulation committee believes that a student can join technical-related sectors if he stops studying after primary level. However, this sector, which is crucially important to industrial growth and national development, needs to be restructured in line with the global technological advancement as it has been neglected for long.

Establishing uniform education with several compulsory core subjects for the main three streams:
The most important feature of the new policy is to establish a unified education system. The policy tries to give the scattered education system into a unified form by introducing compulsory subjects to primary and secondary levels of general, madrasa and vocational education. Though it is almost impossible to bring the three main streams into a unified form now because of divisive characteristics of each stream, the policy framers tried to bring the main streams close as possible. The committee in the policy puts few subjects mandatory for students of every stream. The students, whatever system they follow, will have to read six textbooks provided by National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) on six subjects so that they may have better understanding about certain aspects of the country. The subjects are Bangla, English, Mathematics, Bangladesh Studies, Paribesh Parichiti (education on social environment and climatic change), Information Technology and Science. The policy, however, directs to incorporate Bangla and Bangladesh Studies in 'O' and 'A' levels. By studying these subjects, the policy framers believe, the students may develop a common outlook, which is very important for the unity of the nation.

Common public examinations at grade five, eight, ten and twelve:
The policy suggests introduction of two new public examinations after class V and VIII with the view to lessening exam fear among the children and improving quality of education. A number of poverty-stricken families in the rural Bangladesh do not feel interested to continue education of their children if they fail in class V. They engage them in the work to help the families. On the other hand, the teachers remain busy with only few class V students for the scholarship exams. As a result, the rest of the students remain uncared for and a number of students drop out. To stop the discrimination, the policy suggested a public exam after class V instead of the scholarship exams. The present government has already initiated the examination in 2009 and it gained huge attention and saw an improvement in primary education. Now, the teachers care for all students, so do the parents as certificate and scholarships are being given after the exam. Besides, it is mandatory for a student to pass the examination to be promoted in class VI. The policy also recommends initiating another public exam after class VIII for same reason. It, however, keeps the public exams after class X and class XII as the tradition of the country. Taking frequent pubic exams, however, remains a question to many as they think such frequent exams put more pressure on the students.

Modernising Madrasa education:
The policy realises up-gradation of madrasa education, which constitutes a significant number of students, to cope with the modern world. It comes up with the suggestion of modernising the stream so that its students can participate in the competition with the general ones. Extension of primary level of madrasa, which is known as ebtadai, and inclusion of general subjects in primary and secondary levels of this stream as compulsory ones, as suggested in the policy, will certainly improve the overall quality of madrasa pupils. The policy also emphasises on updating its religious curriculum and reforming Madrasa Education Board. It suggests building an Islamic University with affiliating character to do the work of tertiary level of madrasa properly.

Higher Education:
The policy, on higher education, advises turning all three-year graduation courses into four-year honours courses in phases. A student completing a four-year honours course will be entitled to all professions in his field. Initiatives will be taken gradually to introduce four-year honours programmes in the colleges which offer three-year honours, the policy says. It strongly emphasises on research with the suggestion that both the teachers and the students must work together. For research, it recommends more financial grants for the researchers of the university. Another important feature of this policy is to make higher education available in Bangla along with English. For this, it emphasises on translating more text books in Bangla. To ensure the quality of higher education, the policy has adopted several strategies like introduction of ranking system.

Emphasis on Information and Technology Education:
Considering information and technology education a tool to alleviate poverty and to produce a technologically efficient manpower, the policy emphasises on the education most. It says that computer will be used as a tool in imparting education at primary level while the students will be prepared in compute education before they step in secondary level. Computer education will also be provided in vocational education. In higher level, computer science and information technology department would be initiated in all universities with international standard curricula.

Mandatory Religion and Moral Education and Introduction of Fine Arts:
Degradation of morality has taken an alarming turn in the society which resulted in rise of offences like stalking, corruption and other vices. Taking the fact into consideration, the policy makes the religion and moral education mandatory in the primary education. It suggests preparing textbooks emphasising on socio-cultural norms for moral education. The policy also recommends introduction of fine arts education in order to flourish students' intellects enrich their faculties of mind. By studying the courses, the students would be able to know about the paintings, sculptures, music, play, theatre, arts and culture of the country, says the policy. It would also create sense of discipline and make them aware of national heritage. This course will be made optional subject both in primary and secondary levels of general education, the policy reads, adding necessary classrooms, teachers and textbooks will be arranged for the education gradually.

Among the other recommendations, the policy highlights on prevention of rote memorisation and advocacy of creativity. It strongly underlines the need for standardising qualifications of teachers and providing more training for teachers along with increasing their incentives and dignity. Initiatives would be taken to stop guidebooks or notebooks, private tuitions and coaching, the policy said, these are hampering in achieving standard of education.

Even the policy shows the guideline of its implementation as suggesting to form a permanent National Education Commission which will help the education ministry and other concerned in implementing the policy recommendations.

The government has already constituted a high-powered committee with Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid as head. The committee has been tasked with an important responsibility of preparing strategies to implement the policy and reviewing its progress. Getting the finances to implement all the plans, however, will be a major challenge for the government.

With already two years elapsed, the government really needs to put more efforts and resources, if necessary, to implement the policy, which already have earned people's support. Some strategies, which have already come into implementation, require a structured method to get the best output. Any negligence to pursue the implementation up to its successful end might result in the policy's failure. With already a long time passing in vain, the nation cannot afford to experience such failure again. This is time to get passionate about it. The countrymen believe that the committee will rise to the occasion and prove worthy of the trust reposed on them by fulfilling the aspirations of the people.

The writer is Staff Reporter, The Daily Star.