State of education: The erosion must be checked

What are they being taught? Photo: Noor Alam/ Drik News

EDUCATION in schools, colleges and universities in the country has turned out to be wasteful exercises leaving the young learners handicapped and ill-suited to face the tests of life, either in the job market and/or more specifically as teachers in academic institutions. That underscores the fact that parents are overly concerned with getting the best possible education for their wards.
Statistics taken from urban centres reveal that parents are spending too much on improving their offspring's prospects. The result however is dismal. Few of those who manage to get the certificates and degrees land good jobs. .
Speaking of school level education, it is now common knowledge that a household in urban areas spends at least half of their income on private teachers at the primary and secondary level and take out a miserable living either by taking loan or adjusting the shortfall through some other means. This spending is hardly being paid off. The coaching centres are doing lucrative business. With each student paying Taka 1000 to 2000 for each subject at the secondary level, these centres net a big sum of money but the quality of their product is anything but happy.
Yet, there is hardly any second thought about the fact that people in the country want their children to be educated. But should it come so much at the cost of their economic downturn or should such endeavours put them only in dire straits?
Reports gleaned from some prosperous countries in the Asian region definitely would inspire the parents in the country and call for government action to herald a change. In South Korea that ranks as one of the "Asian Tigers," the government has taken steps to rein in parents it feels are spending too much on improving their offspring's prospects. They are banning private tutors in subjects other than arts and music for students below university level.
The objective is that the government wants to curb excessive spending on tutors as a measure to promote egalitarianism among students by disallowing parents a chance to 'buy' their children superior education.
Opinion polls reveal that many people in the country are opposed to private tutoring, especially at the primary stage. Bad tutoring, or faulty lessons or lessons in the form of 'capsule' dished out at this stage saps the mental vigour, intelligence, merit and awareness of a child about his or her surroundings. It is only through dissemination of sound education at this stage that a society can attain the skills and discipline needed for an economic battle that awaits its people at a later stage of their life.
Left in the hands of a tutor who hardly makes any effort to understand a child's mores, psychology, impulsiveness and inquisitiveness, a child's schooling or grooming is likely to end up in disaster and that only underscores that spending on tutors that amounts to costly sacrifices by the parents often turn out to be wasteful expenditures.
Without any respite parents would continue to do so as long as schools -- private and public, are not doing their job properly. And it is at this juncture that the present elected government's action as regards sound planning and creating a sound base for primary and secondary education is needed.
So says an enraged affluent parent, "I'm in no mood to have my children educated in the country where syllabus and curriculum are changed so frequently and schools fail to fulfil their duties." That's about an affluent parent but what fate awaits a parent who does not have adequate means to send his child to such an elite school as may take care of his ward in exchange for money he should invest?
This pinpoints the responsibility of the government that must provide in public what parents are obliged to buy privately. The reluctance or dilly-dallying of the past government in implementing a sound education policy has far reaching consequences that the administration has failed to realise so long.
The PSC report made public recently revealed that the performances of our boys in the public service examinations have dipped low. On the other hand sensible citizenry are dismayed by the loss of bright young boys to education overseas. At least hundreds and thousands of our boys are migrating to foreign countries for their schooling and in search of a life that is apparently absent in the country.
Few countries can take satisfaction from such migration of their best and the brightest. In the process we lose not only the resources of those who leave but also the confidence and commitment of those who remain. Undeniably true, with the children staying abroad either for schooling or in job, the commitment and patriotism of the (wealthy) parents are bound to be tainted and mixed. So said an affluent businessman who owns several industries including some garments factories in the country, "I am exporting money from Bangladesh to the US."
The newly elected government must respond to this sorry state of affairs in the education sector with pragmatism and farsightedness. In their effort to unveil a sound education policy suited to build a 'Digital Bangladesh,' they are pledge-bound to create a uniform educational base starting from the primary to the secondary level. Unless we can frame an education policy that ensures equal rights and opportunities for all sections of the society, the vision 20-21 would just remain a utopian dream.
The country's educational authorities in their changed mindset must now work on improving the quality of education. To cash in what has become a lucrative business, a large number of these coaching centres are allegedly recruiting teachers without minimum qualification, experience and commitment.
These coaching centres are not recognised by the government, they don't pay taxes although they are making huge incomes and are run without the most basic of facilities. Little wonder then that these educational institutions are producing sub-standard and incompetent products.
To put them at different important organisations is a national risk. And the risk is spreading. Even the recognised schools and colleges strapped for cash, and their teachers supposedly bereft of morality and ethical values and too keen to make quick fortune, are engaged in a messy business. Since quality of education has fallen, corruption in teaching and examination affairs to the extent of selling fake certificates seems to be going rampant.
It should be stressed further that unless teacher training is conducted on a national scale under the new education policy with objective to disseminate uniform education for all, the aim of good quality education will remain an elusive dream. The nation can't afford any further wastage or erosion of its talented and vibrant human resources that with infusion of fund and proper nurturing can turn out to be a gigantic force for the development of the country.
Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of Physics and Controller of Examinations. Email : [email protected].