Problems of primary and secondary education in Bangladesh
Introduction of PECE (Primary Education Completion Examination) or PSC and JSC examinations in primary and secondary levels from last few years have encouraged the students to drill and rote memorisation. Students do not get chance to understand the contents or get scope to create something on their own
Md. Saiful Islam Azad
We know that the education in Bangladesh is highly subsidised. The government has given the highest importance to the education sector to ensure education for all. A large section of the countrys national budget is set aside to promote education and make it more accessible. But the education system of Bangladesh faces several problems. Low performances in primary and secondary levels and dropout are matters of concern. Low performances are results of poverty, widening disparities in education opportunities and facilities, poor school attendance, less contact time in school, lack of skilled school teachers, burden of excess curriculum, grading system, High cost of education, creative system of education, PSC and JSC examinations etc.
Introduction of PECE (Primary Education Completion Examination) or PSC and JSC examinations in primary and secondary levels from last few years have encouraged the students to drill and rote memorization. Students do not get chance to understand the contents or get scope to create something on their own. Education experts, researchers, intelligent citizens, teachers and guardians have questioned the value of these examinations. It doesnt contribute to improving the teaching learning process. Manzoor Ahmed said, .....The effects of PECE have been to encourage drills and rote memorization, neglect understanding and creativity, disregard basic content of the curriculum, and discourage thinking and reasoning. Formative assessment is needed to evaluate students learning. Manzoor said, Formative assessment is continuing day-to-day attention by teachers to ascertain if their students are learning what they are supposed to learn. In educational terms, this is more important than the summative assessment like PECE. PECE has taken away time and effort from formative evaluation and regular teaching learning.
A creative curriculum has been introduced in primary and secondary education sectors from 2009. According to National Education Policy 2010, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) made changes in the content of the syllabus as well as the question pattern to assess the learners creativity. But, the teachers are not capable enough to carry out the plan. Around 41 per cent high schools of our country cannot prepare creative questions. 55 per cent teachers of primary schools do not understand creative system. According to a recent survey conducted by Research for Advancement of Complete Education (RACE), more than half of 100 primary school teachers, who took part in a survey, are still unclear about creative education method introduced about 5 years back. Even more alarming is that about half of the teachers (47 per cent) surveyed rely on guidebooks to prepare lessons while 92 per cent students take the help of guidebooks to understand their lessons Guidebooks, private tutors and coaching centers have been the top dependence for the learners, specifically for the PSC and JSC examinees. These two public exams are the root cause of mushroom growth of coaching centers as well as the guidebook publications. Guidebooks have become the principal instrument for studying to most students, school teachers, private tutors and coaching centers. The appeal of the guidebook is in its ready-made answers to likely exam questions. So, the learners have no need of reading textbooks, learning the content and figuring out own answers. The schools also prepare the question papers for half-yearly, yearly and test exams following guidebooks. Then we must agree the reality that the guidebooks and the coaching centers are playing friendly roles in achieving better grades for the learners. Every year the learners are securing better grades. Parents, students and school authorities are happy for the overall performances of the students. Now, coaching- guide-notebook culture has been the unavoidable part of our education.
But a great lie is clinging with the fact that the quality of the learners has fallen down. Their education has been exams-based. Nowadays, learners are aimed to secure a particular grade (A+). They do not focus on gaining knowledge. Thus the main objective of creative education is disrupting.
The government has formulated a draft education law recently. The law says that private tuition or coaching is a punishable deed. The law has also proposed for banning notes, guidebooks and reference books. But where should the students go for further knowledge or explanations on the text book-based lessons? Can all parents teach their kids? The poor parents of rural areas cannot think of affording coaching or private tuition for their kids. The rural students are gradually falling behind their urban compatriots mainly because they get little guidance on how to tackle creative questions. So, they rely only on guidebooks. The poor guardians also cant ensure reading friendly atmosphere for their kids. So, how can the learners develop their creativity? Let us find the solution after discussing the creative system of education. Maybe we will be able to draw a conclusion.
It (creativity) is the act of turning new and imaginative ideas into reality. Creativity is characterized by the ability to perceive the world in new ways, to find hidden patterns, to make connections between seemingly unrelated phenomena, and to generate solutions. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. Creativity is the mental ability that every learner has more or less. Learning is always problematic and creativity is related to problem solving tasks. In this sense the traditional system of education was also a creative one. Now the process has been taken intensively. Now learners need to take his or her work seriously and continue to create and solve things creatively. Students perform better when they able to share their own thoughts without relying on teachers and texts. But, the teachers hardly inspire the students to write on their own thoughts. They have to write according to teachers directions or from a guidebook selected by the teacher.
Nowadays, the process of teaching and learning is not limited to textbooks only. As creativity is an unlimited thing, learners can secure knowledge from any outer sources. Newspapers, journals, periodicals, internet, literature, reference books, notes, guidebooks etc. may be the sources. Reference materials are one of the essential information resources of modern education system. Reference materials are the gold mines of knowledge. What is important about reference books is that the subjects they contain have been well researched and proven to be of high intellectual standard by subject experts. So, taking helps from the proper reference books, notes or guidebooks in the creative method of learning is not Harmful. In the textbooks of different subjects there are some unsolved things which needed to be solved by the related teachers. But now the majority of the teachers are unable to solve the matters without the help of reference books or guidebooks.
In light of the upper discussions the following steps can be taken in order to materialize the creative system of education:
a. Checking dropout: Poverty is a big threat to primary and secondary educations. Bangladesh has achieved significant progress in primary education in terms of enrolment of the students. But the present scenario of primary and secondary education is not up to our expectation. Dropout is a common event in all stages of education. High tuition fees in schools and colleges have made a negative attitude in the learners and the guardians as well. The poor and the middle-class guardians fail to afford such higher fees for their children. So, the government should fix affordable tuition fees and be strict to follow the approved chart of tuition fees.
The number of seats should be increased in high schools and colleges. The number of seats available in high schools is less than the number of students who want to enroll. Again the number of seats available in colleges is less than the number of students who passed secondary level. As education is a basic right of all children, they should be allowed to continue their studies up to SSC levels without creating any bar. Here, all should be cautious as if the PSC and the JSC examinations do not obstruct the continuation.
b. Lessening low performances: The low performances in primary and secondary levels are alarming. First of all we should think of the power of retention of the learners. If the curriculums become harder than their capacity, then the performances are sure to run low. Curriculums should be made considering their grades, ages etc. Poor school attendance of both students and teachers, less contact time in school, lack of skilled school teachers, burden of excess curriculum, etc. are causes of low performances. The government should take necessary actions to address the problems.
c. Teachers must not join the coaching centers: Some teachers do not teach properly in classrooms, and they make their students bound to go to their coaching centers. The students who do not go to the coaching centers, they are given poor marks in the examinations and their performances are shown to be very low. Then the meritorious students are not evaluated properly. As a result the noble aim of education goes in vain.
d. Dependence on notes, guidebooks and reference books: Dependence on these kinds of books is the outcome of some lapses in our education system. Ive already mentioned some major causes that should be solved first. Then the textbooks of the related subjects should be formulated in such a way that the learners can easily get answers from it. But another question arises. What about the unseen passages added in Bengali and English subjects from grade four? Shouldnt it be limited? I think some probable unseen passages should be added in the grammars supplied by the government. Usually the learners are weak in three subjects-- Bengali, English and Mathematics. Introduction of creative system have made these subjects more difficult. In order to defend it, the learners go to the expert teachers for coaching and buy the related guidebooks. They have no alternative ways to take preparation. So, the matters should be considered before banning the coaching centers and publication of guidebooks or reference books. We should think that stopping of a way may open hundred alternative ways if the matters are not addressed properly.
Finally, it can be said that creativity system of education is a new process of education. It is indeed a hard task for the learners to answer the questions sitting in the examination halls in allocated times. The question setters should think on the matter and set the questions very cautiously. The aim of education is to make the students learn their given subjects. But the aim of examinations shouldnt be to prevent them from learning. We hope the government will proceed steadfastly considering all sides.
The writer is a freelancer
