Disparity and the education’s hamstrung standard

Our system of education is riddled with innumerable disparities at all levels ranging from teaching faculties to the students and the concerned staff. Actually, the system has been riding on a roller coaster through a long zigzag course of disparities. The seeds of all these disparities and discriminations are basically rooted in the disappointingly short-sighted and partisan education policies as of the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. Truly speaking, in the selection process of the policy-planners the long-term interests and outputs of education have been left unaddressed while the temporary and short-term issues and interests have been given priority clearly to serve the narrow, partisan interests of the political parties in power.

This self-destructive trend of compromise and concession with education is hardly found in the cases of the education policies of the developed countries. To begin with, discriminatory practices can be readily found in the creation of cadre and non-cadre blocks in the teaching faculties in the sphere of education which is absolutely undesirable for the universal interest of education. To anatomize this headstrong decision, we evidently find a narrow political motive of building support bases for staying into power.

Nationalization of education is obviously a universally accepted norm in favour of ensuring education for all. However, in the context of Bangladesh, the ground reality is quite opposite. Instead of nationalizing education, we have introduced the culture of nationalizing chosen educational institutions at our own sweet will. With this unplanned process of nationalizing certain educational institutions; facilities, benefits, dignity and honour have been proportionately divided among the teachers unreasonably. What a fatal mistake!

Right with this immature and whimsical decision of nationalizing institutions, a total discriminatory environment in education was instantly created. In this random, reckless process of nationalization since 1971, many educational institutions have been nationalized most of which didn’t even have the required infrastructural facilities let alone qualified teaching faculties. As a spin-off effect of this hastily rash nationalization campaign, the faculties, students and the staff of these institutions became upgraded overnight with new labels and identity like Aladin’s Magic Lamp but not by dint of their own merit.

The teachers, students and the staff of these fortunate institutions, therefore, came to be treated as the grade-1 teachers, students and staff in the society. Just for truth, I must say that many teachers of these institutions didn’t even have the minimum educational qualifications for being the grade-1 teacher.

People related to these newfangled government institutions became fortunate right upon the administrative declaration. They boastfully began to flash their new identity as the government teachers, staff and the students. Relevantly, the teaching faculties of these blessed government institutions teach only a marginal percentage of students out of the total students of the country.

To our utter dismay, we saw that the overwhelming majority of the students studying in the institutions beyond the government blessing were at once left neglected and were gravely threatened with an identity problem. What can be a more glaring example of rampant disparity than the above episode?

As a direct impact of this random process of nationalization, the overwhelming number of dedicated, industrious, sincere and qualified teachers struggling hard to teach the 85% to 90% students with inadequate facilities felt utterly humiliated and rejected. Naturally, a sense of alienation and discontent began to haunt them continually and ultimately left them aggrieved and disaffected. Caught in between the two parallel-running opposite streams of teachers, the standard of education in our country has been sandwiched and downgraded.

Actually, my point is not to oppose the operations of the contrary streams in education. Rather, operations of the parallel currents are universally accepted and found in the education policies of both developing and developed countries. What I am really opposing is the reckless and partisan process of nationalization which is why some teachers have been unduly privileged while the overwhelming majority of teachers have been left discontented and underprivileged. This prevailing undercurrent of discontent can, in no way, be healthy for the universal and uniform promotion of education- a millennium goal.

Still, another sector of disparity is Madrasha Education in terms of facilities, curricula and evaluation. The teachers, students and the staff of the Madrasha System of Education have been virtually placed on the periphery of our system of education. Although they do not constitute a negligible ratio, they are practically less evaluated for unexplained reasons. This phenomenon is, too, far from being healthy for the total well-being of education.

In the sphere of higher education especially university education, three mutually rival parties have been in operations. Disparities also run high in this specialized sector preventing it from reaching a global standard. Disparities here manifest prominently in the forms and patterns of anomalies, lack of co-ordinations, incongruity regarding syllabus, curricula, teaching methodology and infrastructural facilities. The three parallel-running streams of university education in Bangladesh are public university education, private university education and the national university education.

These three types of institutions imparting Bachelors and Masters’ degree under different managements are unofficially categorized into grade-1, grade-2, and grade-3. Though unofficial classification, we practically see a gulf of disparities among these seats of higher education. For example, most of the private universities do not have minimum required space let alone a spacious campus. Alarmingly, some private universities are conducted on hired floors the area of which is disappointingly congested. The idea of a standard university is simply unthinkable without an adequately spacious campus. The university which is universally supposed to develop an open-ended universal mind in a student can hardly achieve this objective in the existing arrangements and facilities. Moreover, the evaluation process of scripts and in awarding grades, the pursuing policies of these universities are seriously questionable. Frankly speaking, a sort of unhealthy competition particularly an excessive commercial attitude tends to prompt the managements of the private universities to award undue privileges and advantages to their students for increasing the enrolments. It is now within anybody’s guess the standard of education of the students studying in the private universities. Hopelessly, the arrangements inside the exam hall and invigilation standard are often viewed otherwise.

The standard of education provided by national university through the affiliated colleges is heavily laden with multifarious problems. A number of gross irregularities have been eating into the vitals of the standard of education of national universities. In fact, the national university education has turned into predominantly a coaching-based education in the version of national university. 80% to 90% students of the national university regularly visit private tutors who are actually their class teachers. This is absolutely a negative phenomenon especially for higher education.

Again, the education of the national university is massively subsidized by the government. So, the present practice of private coaching cannot, at all, be expected of the national university. Still, the classes in the national university are neither held as per schedule nor are the students interested in the classes. Also, the exams and the results are very often not published as per the declared schedule. Students’ politics is a great stumbling block in ensuring the global standard in national university.

Compared to both private and national universities, standard of education imparted in the public university is relatively better and upgraded though not free from many drawbacks. The combined effects of all these disparities in terms of facilities, fund and environment are continuously back-paddling the standard of higher education in Bangladesh.     

   

The writer is Assistant Professor of English, Bogra Cantonment Public School & College. E-mail: [email protected]

 

Disparity and the educations hamstrung standard

Our system of education is riddled with innumerable disparities at all levels ranging from teaching faculties to the students and the concerned staff. Actually, the system has been riding on a roller coaster through a long zigzag course of disparities. The seeds of all these disparities and discriminations are basically rooted in the disappointingly short-sighted and partisan education policies as of the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. Truly speaking, in the selection process of the policy-planners the long-term interests and outputs of education have been left unaddressed while the temporary and short-term issues and interests have been given priority clearly to serve the narrow, partisan interests of the political parties in power. This self-destructive trend of compromise and concession with education is hardly found in the cases of the education policies of the developed countries. To begin with, discriminatory practices can be readily found in the creation of cadre and non-cadre blocks in the teaching faculties in the sphere of education which is absolutely undesirable for the universal interest of education. To anatomize this headstrong decision, we evidently find a narrow political motive of building support bases for staying into power. Nationalization of education is obviously a universally accepted norm in favour of ensuring education for all. However, in the context of Bangladesh, the ground reality is quite opposite. Instead of nationalizing education, we have introduced the culture of nationalizing chosen educational institutions at our own sweet will. With this unplanned process of nationalizing certain educational institutions; facilities, benefits, dignity and honour have been proportionately divided among the teachers unreasonably. What a fatal mistake! Right with this immature and whimsical decision of nationalizing institutions, a total discriminatory environment in education was instantly created. In this random, reckless process of nationalization since 1971, many educational institutions have been nationalized most of which didnt even have the required infrastructural facilities let alone qualified teaching faculties. As a spin-off effect of this hastily rash nationalization campaign, the faculties, students and the staff of these institutions became upgraded overnight with new labels and identity like Aladins Magic Lamp but not by dint of their own merit. The teachers, students and the staff of these fortunate institutions, therefore, came to be treated as the grade-1 teachers, students and staff in the society. Just for truth, I must say that many teachers of these institutions didnt even have the minimum educational qualifications for being the grade-1 teacher. People related to these newfangled government institutions became fortunate right upon the administrative declaration. They boastfully began to flash their new identity as the government teachers, staff and the students. Relevantly, the teaching faculties of these blessed government institutions teach only a marginal percentage of students out of the total students of the country. To our utter dismay, we saw that the overwhelming majority of the students studying in the institutions beyond the government blessing were at once left neglected and were gravely threatened with an identity problem. What can be a more glaring example of rampant disparity than the above episode? As a direct impact of this random process of nationalization, the overwhelming number of dedicated, industrious, sincere and qualified teachers struggling hard to teach the 85% to 90% students with inadequate facilities felt utterly humiliated and rejected. Naturally, a sense of alienation and discontent began to haunt them continually and ultimately left them aggrieved and disaffected. Caught in between the two parallel-running opposite streams of teachers, the standard of education in our country has been sandwiched and downgraded. Actually, my point is not to oppose the operations of the contrary streams in education. Rather, operations of the parallel currents are universally accepted and found in the education policies of both developing and developed countries. What I am really opposing is the reckless and partisan process of nationalization which is why some teachers have been unduly privileged while the overwhelming majority of teachers have been left discontented and underprivileged. This prevailing undercurrent of discontent can, in no way, be healthy for the universal and uniform promotion of education- a millennium goal. Still, another sector of disparity is Madrasha Education in terms of facilities, curricula and evaluation. The teachers, students and the staff of the Madrasha System of Education have been virtually placed on the periphery of our system of education. Although they do not constitute a negligible ratio, they are practically less evaluated for unexplained reasons. This phenomenon is, too, far from being healthy for the total well-being of education. In the sphere of higher education especially university education, three mutually rival parties have been in operations. Disparities also run high in this specialized sector preventing it from reaching a global standard. Disparities here manifest prominently in the forms and patterns of anomalies, lack of co-ordinations, incongruity regarding syllabus, curricula, teaching methodology and infrastructural facilities. The three parallel-running streams of university education in Bangladesh are public university education, private university education and the national university education. These three types of institutions imparting Bachelors and Masters degree under different managements are unofficially categorized into grade-1, grade-2, and grade-3. Though unofficial classification, we practically see a gulf of disparities among these seats of higher education. For example, most of the private universities do not have minimum required space let alone a spacious campus. Alarmingly, some private universities are conducted on hired floors the area of which is disappointingly congested. The idea of a standard university is simply unthinkable without an adequately spacious campus. The university which is universally supposed to develop an open-ended universal mind in a student can hardly achieve this objective in the existing arrangements and facilities. Moreover, the evaluation process of scripts and in awarding grades, the pursuing policies of these universities are seriously questionable. Frankly speaking, a sort of unhealthy competition particularly an excessive commercial attitude tends to prompt the managements of the private universities to award undue privileges and advantages to their students for increasing the enrolments. It is now within anybodys guess the standard of education of the students studying in the private universities. Hopelessly, the arrangements inside the exam hall and invigilation standard are often viewed otherwise. The standard of education provided by national university through the affiliated colleges is heavily laden with multifarious problems. A number of gross irregularities have been eating into the vitals of the standard of education of national universities. In fact, the national university education has turned into predominantly a coaching-based education in the version of national university. 80% to 90% students of the national university regularly visit private tutors who are actually their class teachers. This is absolutely a negative phenomenon especially for higher education. Again, the education of the national university is massively subsidized by the government. So, the present practice of private coaching cannot, at all, be expected of the national university. Still, the classes in the national university are neither held as per schedule nor are the students interested in the classes. Also, the exams and the results are very often not published as per the declared schedule. Students politics is a great stumbling block in ensuring the global standard in national university. Compared to both private and national universities, standard of education imparted in the public university is relatively better and upgraded though not free from many drawbacks. The combined effects of all these disparities in terms of facilities, fund and environment are continuously back-paddling the standard of higher education in Bangladesh. The writer is Assistant Professor of English, Bogra Cantonment Public School College. E-mail: [email protected]