An analysis of the education policy

The desire to learn must not be dampened. Photo: Adnan/ Drik News

THE committee on formulating education policy submitted the draft report to the Ministry of Education (MOE), and is now available in MOE website. The MOE asked people for constructive suggestions. As an educational researcher, I do have something to say on the matter; and instead of sending my thoughts to the ministry, I prefer to use the print media so that public opinion can be built.
The committee has done a good job in formulating policies on almost every aspect of education in Bangladesh in only 3-4 months. Naturally, dwelling on so many issues might have compromised delving in depth into the problems of education in the country.
Any change in any working system must aim at reaching some well-defined higher goals through resolving the prevailing problems. Let me reiterate briefly the structural or systemic problems in our education arena.
The identified problems are shorter (by 1 year than the world average) duration of our primary education, divisiveness (into general, madrasa, English medium etc.) in structure defying constitutional obligation (Article 17), premature ending of unified education (at Grade-8), lack of systemic accountability of primary and lower secondary education (since the first public examination is held at Grade-10), very narrow scope of vocational/technical education, lack of proper moral education, and less scope of doing research even at the Masters level since the course is of only 1-year duration.
Apart from a few (like the need for extending unified education and of Masters course), the committee, I think, understood most of the problems, and the report bears testimony to that. The salient positive features of the report are:
-Gradual elevation of universal, free (primary? compulsory?) education upto Grade-8.
-Provision for compulsory core subjects for all students in all subsystems, inclusive of madrasa and technical education streams (why not in English medium?).
-Introduction of earlier public examination (at Grade-8; in place of Grade-10) and deferring of the second one to Grade-12.
-Emphasis on technical and vocational education with establishment of a technical institute (mono- or polytechnic?) in each upazila.
-Emphasis on information and communication technology (ICT) in line with the vision of establishing "Digital Bangladesh."
-Equalisation of Bachelor degree course through making it 4-year honours, abolishing the pass degree course.
-Establishment of a permanent Education Commission to deal with this major state activity.
Now let us analyse some points. The first point is the longing (that I like to term "illusion" set by the Qudrat-e-Khuda Commission) for establishing 8-year long primary education. I think that when our first education commission was working during 1972-74, the members did not have enough scope (in absence of internet) to know about the world pattern. They just tried to elevate the level of universal education in line with Unesco requirement of 14 years of schooling and named that "primary." Now we know that the world pattern of primary education is up to Grade-6.
All developed countries have 6-year primary schooling. Most countries provide "basic" or universal education up to Grade-9, keeping Grades 7-9 in secondary schools (naming that "lower"/"junior" secondary). If we try to have an 8-year long primary education and 4-year (Grades 9-12) secondary at a stretch, our infrastructures in high schools would remain underused while our resources will fall short in the unnecessary establishment of massive infrastructures (the cost estimated to be TK. 680 billion!) in lengthy primary schools.
Instead of being beneficial, it will be a losing concern because the young learners would lose heart and suffer monotony in studying for 8/9 (introduction of "baby" class would make it 9 years!) long years in a single school; they would certainly be longing to enter bigger/higher seats of learning as they get promoted. To overcome this, I have been proposing a 6+(3+3) structure of primary and secondary education since 2002 (see The Bangladesh Observer Magazine cover story, September 13, 2002). My proposed system provides for 6-year primary, 3-year lower secondary and 3-year higher secondary schooling; with public examinations to be held at Grade-6, Grade-9 and Grade-12.
In addition, the term "compulsory" is a misnomer. Our government made primary education up to Grade-5 "compulsory" in 1992. What has been the result? 5-10% (of different ages) 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; declaring education as "compulsory" bears no meaning!
The committee proposed a "core" subject -- "Bangladesh studies." Although the committee didn't elaborate on its content, I guess the aim is to deal with the history of Bangladesh. If the present government writes a voluminous "History of Bangladesh" for such young learners, I am afraid it will exaggerate some points and keep the space open for the rivals to carry out manipulation again (when they are voted to power). Therefore, for primary and lower secondary students, history can be a part of Social Science containing the basics of our undistorted history.
Besides, there's no mention of integrated science education; instead ICT was cited. To the best of our knowledge, ICT can be a part of science and be counted as a "core" subject. Finally, the committee suggested that "core" subjects need not be applied to English medium education; it's a gross mistake and will encourage madrasas to defy the government rule of "core" subjects.
The proposal of holding public examinations at Grade-8 and Grade-12 is in line with the "illusion" of 8-year long primary schooling, which will be difficult to establish and may result in chaos and inefficiency rather than improvement. Now secondary teachers are accountable for students' results in SSC examination; in absence of this, the accountability will shift to the teachers of Grades 11-12.
Besides, having a primary (Grade-8) pass certificate, and being unable to reach Grade-12, many students would drop out; while in the present structure they would finish Grade-10. Therefore, we must keep secondary education subdivided into two levels, lower and upper, having two public examinations that may logically be at Grade-9 and Grade-12. This is mentioned in my proposal detailed in the monthly Forum (Sept.) article.
The Committee suggested diversified general education at Grades 9-12 as it is now; i.e., the committee could not contain the largely held view that duration of unified education needs to be extended. My proposal is making education unified up to Grade-9, to be diversified during Grades 10-12 (higher secondary). The Committee also didn't provide opportunity for doing research by lengthening the Masters course (I propose to make this a 2-year one for the purpose).
The committee proposed to establish technical institutes at upazila level, but didn't elaborate on the type/status of those institutes. I propose mono-technical/vocational institutes to be established at union level (first in upazilas) and polytechnics in each upazila (first in districts). Vocational studies should be opened to Primary-6 certificate holders (as in China) and polytechnics for Grade-9 certificate holders.

Abdus Sattar Molla is an education researcher at NIE, Singapore.
E-mail: [email protected]