Education system
The letter from AS Islam, retired professor of Botany of Dhaka University, illustrates yet another reason why a 'unified system of education' could be a disaster. Thank you, Sir, for exposing the awfulness of at least one of the 'approved textbooks' in your subject and chilling us to the marrow at the prospect of not only the pupils in one type of school but all Bangladeshi pupils being exposed to the ghastly mistakes, the outdatedness and the sheer boredom of SOME badly written, illustrated and printed school textbooks.
What goes on in the present UN-unified system guarantees that, if there are awful textbooks, some schools at least, can choose different ones and the free circulation of a wide variety of books may, with any luck, guarantee that the worst ones sink to the bottom and be abandoned, despite the huge profits that they can make for those who keep trying to raise them from the dead.
Of course, we must all respect the noble intentions of the many nice people who claim that abolishing the present freedom to have Bengali-medium, English-medium and Madrassah education, will usher in a society free from 'discrimination, corruption and fanaticism' - and, let me add, snobbery, hostility and prejudice - and all those other evils that we want to see the back of, in our schools and world.
However, remember the saying, 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions……' How can changing the words on a school notice-board and re- jigging systems destroy these evils? Children learn to look down their noses at others not from the SYSTEM under which they are being educated but by the PEOPLE they come into contact with parents, teachers, friends and whether such people encourage them to think well or poorly of other children in other schools or of any people who are different from them.
I have to say that, from my experience in the UK and here, it is possible with hard work, to create a good moral 'climate' in all sorts of schools run according to all sorts of systems. The evils that we all want to protect children from are forces that do not lend themselves to reform by those who like tinkering with the machinery! They will just dig in and stay there, whatever 'unified system' is imposed. Many are the nation in the last few decades that I have seen try to impose a 'unified system', for the best of intentions, only to discover, the hard way, that, despite enormous cost and disruption, the longed-for improvements in behaviour and attitude have failed to materialise. (Avoiding snobbery - and inverted snobbery - within schools or between schools is extremely difficult to get rid of.) Uniformity of education does not guarantee quality of education. It is moral and ethical training that is needed to teach tolerance, respect and honesty and it is very hard work, in every sort of school, in every country.
Instead of re-jigging systems a process which will only exhaust and frustrate teachers, pupils and parents and waste an incredible amount of money and time - it is surely better to concentrate on developing moral education across all the systems - and include parents in the process - so that good parents and good teachers will extend their influence so that more and more of our beloved children can develop as happy and good citizens with educational and social skills and enlightened moral attitudes that will enable them to serve the nation without fear or favour.
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