Primary schooling in disarray

THE recent move, a long awaited one, by the ministry of Primary and Mass education to set up BCS Primary education cadre is a very welcome gesture signaling a change in the declining quality of primary education. A draft proposal in this connection , it is learnt through reports carried by some Bangla dailies on May 25 last, has been sent to the Chief Adviser's office for final approval. It is worth mentioning that out of 11 lakh officers and employees in the government sector 8 lakh officers and employees are covered by 29 cadres but there exists no such cadres in the country to bring about effective management, in still efficiency, enhance quality of education and improve working condition for more than 3 lakh teachers and officers working in 83 thousand government and non-government schools.
With about 10 second class gazetted officers working under one education officer at the upazila level, there are about 500 to 1200 such teachers and employees, at the highest count, engaged in catering education at the most vital stage of schooling. Sadly true, even when this number exceeds 50 per cent of the total government employees at the Upazila level, hardly any thought was given to create a class 1 education officer's post therein. Undeniably true, in absence of any such move during the last 37 years, primary education has lost its importance and dynamism in the country.
It is true that education at the primary level is swamped in a crisis. Its problems are two fold : inadequate investment and declining quality. The reason for poor quality of schooling in the country, as one might have diagnosed, is the physical infrastructure that is woefully inadequate. While there is much truth in the saying that buildings don't make institutions, the infrastructure of an educational institution cannot be ignored. It's a common sight that in most schools children are huddled together in a single, dark room. Any conscious citizen visiting these dilapidated schools would feel convinced that the state of the premises -- leaking roof, often even no shed to protect the students from the sun and rain -- was the main reason why children didn't come to school. Moreover, if all the children were in school, as they are meant to be, so called school buildings or ramshackle houses, as they are now, would burst at the seams.
Even in some villages close to the capital city there is no infrastructure worth the name. A report published in the Bangla daily Prothom Alo on May 11 last indicated that there were no benches for the students other than 12 pairs with broken legs for 60 students of class four and five and no chairs and tables for teachers in the Dighirpar primary school near Ashulia. The one-room tin shed school house built in 1990 by some local patrons has not seen any touch of development activities during these 18 years. Teachers sit in a near-by youth club building during class-break. In absence of any tube-well in the school premises, students have to run to the club building premises to quench their thirst during hot summer days.
Another report carried by the same Bangla daily on May 13 last with photograph indicated that Ideal Girls' High School at Chatmohar in Pabna, worst hit by flood last year, has now been reconstructed with tube wells dug and benches provided through the financial assistance of the Prothom Alo. The report also stated the dire strait of the Bangla Hili Pilot High School at Hakimpur Upazila in Dinajpur district. This school where about 1000 students are now studying has to be declared closed every year as the places adjoining the school go under knee-deep water just with the onset of rainy season. Incensed by a report about the suffering of the students of Kadihat High school at Thakurgaon on Feb 26 last that indicated, "there are no benches, students keep standing in the class," the management of the Prothom Alo in a nice gesture donated 46 pairs of benches to the Headmaster of the school last week.
Thirty seven years into the liberation of the country, Bangladesh 's children have little to celebrate : about 2 crore of them are out of school. This despite the constitutional directive urging the state to provide free and compulsory education for all children but precious little has been done. Sadly true, if present trends continue, Bangladesh is still 100 years away from reaching that goal.
Meanwhile, the number of illiterate people in the population is steadily rising. About 80 per cent of the adolescent girls are unable to read and write. The low priority given to education by the nation is apparent from the mean years of schooling, the average period spent in school by a citizen. Bangladeshis spend a little over two years in the classroom, the Chinese spend five, the Sri Lankans over seven and the South Koreans nine. Reports carried by different dailies in the recent past indicated that 606306 students dropped out from the final SSC examination this year. That so many children are out of school or dropped out is a profound tragedy. Undeniably true, education is a basic tool for self defence in modern society. The feeling of powerlessness that goes with being illiterate comes through loud and clear in any conversation with ordinary people.
The findings of a sample survey by some NGOs in the past provide a startling picture of the schooling system in the country's villages. To begin with, they shatter two myths often invoked to 'explain' the slow progress of elementary education : one, a supposed lack of parental motivation; two, that work keeps children from going to school. Other than one such single survey, most of the studies about elementary schooling give an eye-opening account of the appalling condition of elementary education in rural Bangladesh. It makes it clear that the battle against ignorance is a grim one and success would be hard to achieve simply by instituting a cadre service .Through induction of qualified and dedicated teachers conversant with teaching methodology, routine inspection of the class teaching by reputed academicians in the area and high ranking officers in the government, and introducing a pay scale commensurate with other ranks in government services could a meaningful change be brought about in the primary level of schooling.
Most shocking, leaving aside the primary level, English is hardly taught even at the secondary stage and there is dearth of competent English teachers at the school level, a disastrous consequence of bad selection of English textbooks and syllabus beginning from the primary to the secondary level since the days of liberation of the country. It is because our education ministry was more interested in replacing chapters on dead leaders in school textbooks. The worrying aspect is that primary education or mass literacy is among the few areas where only the government can make a difference.
Despite so much hue and cry about the development effort undertaken by the past government in the education sector, Bangladesh has still more than 46 percent illiterate population and literacy means just to be able to read "Adarsha Lipi" or write one's name. So while our leaders in the past days talked about lifting the masses from doom and gloom, they had always neglected the essential ingredients such as education and health -- a serious failing. It's true that governments in the past made higher allocation in the education budget but there was hardly any trickle down effect. Some new schools with political consideration were built and quite a substantial amount of fund distributed with little benefit to the impoverished population in the countryside. The process only helped to turn some 'record keeper' or clerks in the Education Directorate office into millionaires because of unbridled corruption creeping in the system in absence of proper checks and balances, surveillance and monitoring of the projects by the elected representatives in the past days.

Md. Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.