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Charting course for education -- Manzoor Ahmed Higher education in the foreseeable future -- S.M.A. Faiz Forty years of science -- Dr. Mohammad Ali Asgar Public understanding of science: Role of academies -- M Shamsher Ali Higher education and sixth five-year plan -- Dr. Hafiz G.A. Siddiqi Use of ICT in teaching -- M. M. Akash For quality education -- Prof. Selina Mohsin Education: Systemic analysis -- Wasim Bin Habib Private universities: A half-full glass -- Dr. Hafiz G.A. Siddiqi Universities as agents of development -- Dr. A. M. Choudhury Madrassa education needs reform -- Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury Forty years of theatre -- Syed Jamil Ahmed Folk music at a glance -- Dr. Mridul Kanti Chakrobarty Working on a melody -- Elita Karim Films: Chasing a mirage -- Nurul Alam Atique Plants and people -- Pavel Partha The country called Bangladesh -- Dr. M. Emdadul Haq Art movements between 1948 and 2000 -- Takir Hossain The forerunner of mime in Bangladesh -- Zahangir Alom The last laugh -- Abdul Bayes
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Education: Systemic analysis Wasim Bin Habib
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: 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: Establishing uniform education with several compulsory core subjects for the main three streams: Common public examinations at grade five, eight, ten and twelve: Modernising Madrasa education: Higher Education: Emphasis on Information and Technology Education: Mandatory Religion and Moral Education and Introduction of Fine Arts: 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. |