Concern about quality of teaching and training of teachers

Bangladesh’s constitution guarantees educational rights for all its citizens. In fact, primary education was made “compulsory” in 1992. Yet even today 5-10 per cent of the kids still don’t go to any school, let alone finish school. Can we hold their parents responsible for that?
Does the state have enough resources to bring up all the families from below the poverty line? If not, the way is through increasing opportunity, providing incentives through making education free, and providing free books. Without doing these things declaring education as "compulsory" bears no meaning.
If effective steps are not taken immediately to ensure quality modern education, this country will be left behind and dreams of generations to come will remain unfulfilled.
Unfortunately, despite intermittent attempts at reform, Bangladesh’s system of education is more or less entrenched in an antiquated colonial approach and the curriculum and educational policies remain outdated.
Success in schools in this country is based mostly on how much a student has memorised. Knowledge is thrust upon students, who have devised ways to retain the knowledge temporarily, regurgitate it and move on. But this is not the essence of education. An acceptable modern education is one that gives a student the best preparation for life after school. In our working lives, we have to make decisions and solve problems that require creative solutions.
There’s little hands-on experiential teaching, critical analysis or independent thinking – often considered to be the building blocks of innovation. Further, entrenched disparities exist that prevent all Bangladeshi students from excelling and competing with their peers around the world. In areas where there is strong influence of religious fundamentalists insurgency groups, access to education is either limited or perhaps non-existent.
One of the major infrastructures to suffer are schools, which are often damaged during political agitations. Extremist groups who oppose secular or girl's education destroy schools and other places of learning and there are reports of even attempting to prohibit girls from attending secular educational institutions.  Government must work to develop wise leadership which comes from opening minds up to opportunities and by paving the way for personal achievement.
Investing in education in this way will also help create jobs and enable young people to be more marketable and competitive with their peers around the world. C.S Lewis once said, “The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts.” When minds are open innovation follows. By offering students the means to develop skills that will be important to the 21st century global community the country will prosper. The government must create these means by reducing disparities wherever they exist.
No one can deny that proper education is the key to survival of all civilised societies. It is the only channel through which knowledge and wisdom is translated into the framework of social, economic and cultural aspects of a nation.  However, over the years, unfortunately, because of the lack of strong political will and inconsistency in policies and various other factors, including social and economic issues, this important sector of education while not quite neglected has not been given the importance it deserves.
 Education, from elementary school to professional and higher education, is the single most important engine that drives progress in the economy, civic life and democracy. Bringing about drastic education reforms requires drastic changes in the prevailing attitudes toward education management, financing, curricula reforms, academic flexibility, research collaboration, the training of young people in fields that are needed in the local communities and industry, and much more. It also requires a long-term commitment of the stakeholders to make investing in education a priority for the government as well as the community.
In Bangladesh, there has developed an apparent gap between those who “have” and those who “have not”. This is especially become the case with so many private universities and schools. Undoubtedly, only a small population of mainly urban elite have the privilege to get real quality education. It’s obvious that those with access to better education are benefiting from the advantages while the rest and the majority, the less fortunate, continue to struggle for their bread and butter.
The number of people in Bangladesh who are deeply worried about the state of education and especially higher education is actually much larger than those who currently attend schools, colleges and universities or who have recently graduated. The list of “worried” people obviously includes parents as well. As is probably true for much of South Asia, Bangladeshi parents are very much involved in the lives of their children. This is also because most young people are financially dependent on their parents until they complete college and secure employment.
One of the main reasons why young people and their parents are worried a lot is that good quality higher education institutions (which can actually be termed as “centres of excellence”) are in short supply. Getting admitted into a good college is extremely hard and earning a degree or two from a regular college does not amount to much these days. A majority of the country’s higher education institutions can be categorised average or below-average. Therefore, it is not surprising that a large percentage of college graduates are found to be unemployable.
The citizens need to do more to persuade the government to act decisively. They need to come together and be vocal in expressing their concerns.
Poorly regulated madrasas and other religious schools are filling the gap of the public education sector and contributing to religious extremism and sectarian violence. The state must urgently reverse decades of neglect by increasing expenditure on the under-funded education system – ensuring that international aid to this sector is supplementary to, rather than a substitute for, the state’s financial commitment – and opt for meaningful reform of the curriculum, bureaucracy, teaching staff and methodologies.
An effective reform of the education system in Bangladesh requires a drastic bottom-up approach; without the improvement of colleges it will be very difficult to improve the quality of university graduates, and without improving the quality of learning at the high school and even elementary level, college preparation is very limited.
At present, education at all levels suffers from issues ranging from a substandard quality of teaching, a lack of resources and poor financial management. Administrative and financial decisions are often blocked in a gridlock between the district governments on the one hand and the central education departments on the other.
The students' lack of opportunities to get a quality education translates to a missed opportunity to alleviate poverty through economic growth and development. Budget planning for education must have specific and attainable goals for the next five years, increased gradually each year rather than planning unrealistically large allocations for a longer-term period. While having an ambitious goal for the next 10 years is desirable, it becomes very difficult to project that goal in attainable terms each year.
By planning on shorter timelines with more realistic goals the authorities are better focused and dedicated to allocate the assigned percentage of funds for education and deliver it on time.  In addition to increased government funding, educational institutions and everyone in the community must get involved to support efforts for strengthening the education system. Ways to increase funding include tapping into the alumni resources of education institutions, establishing endowment funds both for institutions and to support scholarships for needy students, community involvement and contributions to education through fundraising public campaigns. For these methods to be effective, it is vital to get the word out about the nationwide need to assist education.
The young demographic profile  of the country where about 40 per cent of the population is under the age of 15, translates into about 70 million children who need an education and professional training. To have a better planning approach for the expected number of children, a base line of the population increase must be calculated and to it a 10 per cent growth above the base line should be added. This number of children must be accommodated in the existing school system, by maximising both human and physical resources.
The colossal job to educate young children with limited resources and secure a future for them and the country can be addressed in several ways. One very effective approach to address this urgent need is by introducing one to two semesters of teaching school children as a requirement for undergraduate and graduate degrees. For this teaching period the tuition fees of the college/­university students could be waived.
The rotating number of students who are trained to teach before graduation will provide a great temporary human resource to schools. At the same time, it may motivate many students to take up teaching as a career. Existing human and physical resources must be tapped to ensure that regular collaboration among professionals and institutions through joint research programmes take place.
It is very important for students to actually participate, experiment and become familiar with their study materials if they are required to be proficient. Teachers must change the rote-learning teaching methods and find innovative ways to make teaching a more active, participatory and real-life related subject.
The crisis of education cannot be solved by any magical formula. It requires sustained, effective, and proactive actions from everyone involved. The quality of learning needs to be improved by providing continuous training to all teachers, introducing teaching methods that emphasise critical and creative thinking, and increase in the support to education institutions.

The writer is Assistant Editor of The Independent and
can be contacted at: [email protected]

Concern about quality of teaching and training of teachers

Bangladeshs constitution guarantees educational rights for all its citizens. In fact, primary education was made compulsory in 1992. Yet even today 5-10 per cent of the kids still dont go to any school, let alone finish school. Can we hold their parents responsible for that? Does the state have enough resources to bring up all the families from below the poverty line? If not, the way is through increasing opportunity, providing incentives through making education free, and providing free books. Without doing these things declaring education as compulsory bears no meaning. If effective steps are not taken immediately to ensure quality modern education, this country will be left behind and dreams of generations to come will remain unfulfilled. Unfortunately, despite intermittent attempts at reform, Bangladeshs system of education is more or less entrenched in an antiquated colonial approach and the curriculum and educational policies remain outdated. Success in schools in this country is based mostly on how much a student has memorised. Knowledge is thrust upon students, who have devised ways to retain the knowledge temporarily, regurgitate it and move on. But this is not the essence of education. An acceptable modern education is one that gives a student the best preparation for life after school. In our working lives, we have to make decisions and solve problems that require creative solutions. Theres little hands-on experiential teaching, critical analysis or independent thinking often considered to be the building blocks of innovation. Further, entrenched disparities exist that prevent all Bangladeshi students from excelling and competing with their peers around the world. In areas where there is strong influence of religious fundamentalists insurgency groups, access to education is either limited or perhaps non-existent. One of the major infrastructures to suffer are schools, which are often damaged during political agitations. Extremist groups who oppose secular or girls education destroy schools and other places of learning and there are reports of even attempting to prohibit girls from attending secular educational institutions. Government must work to develop wise leadership which comes from opening minds up to opportunities and by paving the way for personal achievement. Investing in education in this way will also help create jobs and enable young people to be more marketable and competitive with their peers around the world. C.S Lewis once said, The task of the modern educator is not to cut down jungles, but to irrigate deserts. When minds are open innovation follows. By offering students the means to develop skills that will be important to the 21st century global community the country will prosper. The government must create these means by reducing disparities wherever they exist. No one can deny that proper education is the key to survival of all civilised societies. It is the only channel through which knowledge and wisdom is translated into the framework of social, economic and cultural aspects of a nation. However, over the years, unfortunately, because of the lack of strong political will and inconsistency in policies and various other factors, including social and economic issues, this important sector of education while not quite neglected has not been given the importance it deserves. Education, from elementary school to professional and higher education, is the single most important engine that drives progress in the economy, civic life and democracy. Bringing about drastic education reforms requires drastic changes in the prevailing attitudes toward education management, financing, curricula reforms, academic flexibility, research collaboration, the training of young people in fields that are needed in the local communities and industry, and much more. It also requires a long-term commitment of the stakeholders to make investing in education a priority for the government as well as the community. In Bangladesh, there has developed an apparent gap between those who have and those who have not. This is especially become the case with so many private universities and schools. Undoubtedly, only a small population of mainly urban elite have the privilege to get real quality education. Its obvious that those with access to better education are benefiting from the advantages while the rest and the majority, the less fortunate, continue to struggle for their bread and butter. The number of people in Bangladesh who are deeply worried about the state of education and especially higher education is actually much larger than those who currently attend schools, colleges and universities or who have recently graduated. The list of worried people obviously includes parents as well. As is probably true for much of South Asia, Bangladeshi parents are very much involved in the lives of their children. This is also because most young people are financially dependent on their parents until they complete college and secure employment. One of the main reasons why young people and their parents are worried a lot is that good quality higher education institutions (which can actually be termed as centres of excellence) are in short supply. Getting admitted into a good college is extremely hard and earning a degree or two from a regular college does not amount to much these days. A majority of the countrys higher education institutions can be categorised average or below-average. Therefore, it is not surprising that a large percentage of college graduates are found to be unemployable. The citizens need to do more to persuade the government to act decisively. They need to come together and be vocal in expressing their concerns. Poorly regulated madrasas and other religious schools are filling the gap of the public education sector and contributing to religious extremism and sectarian violence. The state must urgently reverse decades of neglect by increasing expenditure on the under-funded education system ensuring that international aid to this sector is supplementary to, rather than a substitute for, the states financial commitment and opt for meaningful reform of the curriculum, bureaucracy, teaching staff and methodologies. An effective reform of the education system in Bangladesh requires a drastic bottom-up approach; without the improvement of colleges it will be very difficult to improve the quality of university graduates, and without improving the quality of learning at the high school and even elementary level, college preparation is very limited. At present, education at all levels suffers from issues ranging from a substandard quality of teaching, a lack of resources and poor financial management. Administrative and financial decisions are often blocked in a gridlock between the district governments on the one hand and the central education departments on the other. The students lack of opportunities to get a quality education translates to a missed opportunity to alleviate poverty through economic growth and development. Budget planning for education must have specific and attainable goals for the next five years, increased gradually each year rather than planning unrealistically large allocations for a longer-term period. While having an ambitious goal for the next 10 years is desirable, it becomes very difficult to project that goal in attainable terms each year. By planning on shorter timelines with more realistic goals the authorities are better focused and dedicated to allocate the assigned percentage of funds for education and deliver it on time. In addition to increased government funding, educational institutions and everyone in the community must get involved to support efforts for strengthening the education system. Ways to increase funding include tapping into the alumni resources of education institutions, establishing endowment funds both for institutions and to support scholarships for needy students, community involvement and contributions to education through fundraising public campaigns. For these methods to be effective, it is vital to get the word out about the nationwide need to assist education. The young demographic profile of the country where about 40 per cent of the population is under the age of 15, translates into about 70 million children who need an education and professional training. To have a better planning approach for the expected number of children, a base line of the population increase must be calculated and to it a 10 per cent growth above the base line should be added. This number of children must be accommodated in the existing school system, by maximising both human and physical resources. The colossal job to educate young children with limited resources and secure a future for them and the country can be addressed in several ways. One very effective approach to address this urgent need is by introducing one to two semesters of teaching school children as a requirement for undergraduate and graduate degrees. For this teaching period the tuition fees of the college/university students could be waived. The rotating number of students who are trained to teach before graduation will provide a great temporary human resource to schools. At the same time, it may motivate many students to take up teaching as a career. Existing human and physical resources must be tapped to ensure that regular collaboration among professionals and institutions through joint research programmes take place. It is very important for students to actually participate, experiment and become familiar with their study materials if they are required to be proficient. Teachers must change the rote-learning teaching methods and find innovative ways to make teaching a more active, participatory and real-life related subject. The crisis of education cannot be solved by any magical formula. It requires sustained, effective, and proactive actions from everyone involved. The quality of learning needs to be improved by providing continuous training to all teachers, introducing teaching methods that emphasise critical and creative thinking, and increase in the support to education institutions. The writer is Assistant Editor of The Independent and can be contacted at: [email protected]