Teach in mother tongue

Acquiring reading skills in native language helps boost children's brain development, said speakers at a roundtable in the capital yesterday.

They stressed the need for promoting literacy using children's first language and also urged the primary and mass education ministry to improve teachers' training programmes and introduce new interactive teaching methods.

The Prothom Alo with the help of USAID (United States Agency for International Development) and Save the Children, Bangladesh organised the roundtable on “Reading Skills in Mother Tongue: Foundation of Quality Education” at the newspaper's office.

Prof Emeritus Manzoor Ahmed of Brac University said learning in mother tongue allows children flourish their talents.

Iffat Ara Nasrin Majid, director, Institute of Modern Language, Dhaka University, said primary school teachers have to be knowledgeable as they are responsible for building strong foundation for kids.

Teaching and learning materials, mainly books, have to be interesting and colourful to make children enthusiastic about reading, she added.

Prof Jinnat Imtiaz Ali, director general, International Mother Language Institute, said the authorities must work to develop the competency of teachers as they play a vital role in nurturing the future nation builders.

Afzal Hossain Sarwar, policy expert, Access to Information project of UNDP, said the purpose of learning will not be fulfilled if students cannot relate real-life objects with the ones they read about in books.

Abu Hena Mostafa Kamal, director general, Directorate of Primary Education, who chaired the roundtable, mentioned that the country has around 1.3 lakh educational institutions and the government regularly arranges training programmes for teachers.

The government is also working to keep a teacher-student ratio at 1:30 which is 1:37 at present, he said.

Prothom Alo Associate Editor Abdul Quayum moderated the roundtable.

Habibur Rahman, senior adviser, education sector, Save the Children, Bangladesh; KM Enamul Haque, deputy director, Campaign for Popular Education; Nazmul Haque, executive secretary, Bangladesh Forum for Educational Development; and Kate Maloney, team leader, education, USAID, also spoke.