Notebooks replace textbooks as aid for good results!

Teachers and students of the schools in the district often do away with English textbooks provided by the government as they consider notebooks and guide books  'more helpful' for doing good results.
This correspondent got the picture during his visit to 20 classes of as many schools including two government schools in four upazilas of the district.
“I never read English textbooks from classes VI to X as school teachers did not use it while teaching. They taught us questions and answers with selected guide books that helped us to do good results,” said Suma Aktar who scored golden GPA in the SSC from Rajapur Pilot Girls' High School in 2012.
"I could not enter any university this year as I failed to get qualifying marks in English. Now I understand the consequence of ignoring English textbooks," she said.   
“The students are not interested to read textbooks as no question is set from there in the examinations," said Tapan Kumar Karmakar, English teacher of Jhalakathi Government Hara Chandra Girls' High School.
“We usually carry guides in school for our classes as the teachers teach us from it,” said Taslima Aktar, a student of the school.
In the 20 schools visited, this correspondent found not a single student who could smoothly read out a few passages from their English textbooks and say its meaning.
The students of 15 of the schools could not even read out a single line form the text with meaning.
Amir Khosru, senior English teacher of Rajapur Girls' High School, informed that he tried to teach students with the help of English textbooks in school but none felt interested.
Kazi Sumaia Moon, who secured GPA-5 in the SSC and golden GPA in the HSC, is now studying in economics department of BM College in Barisal.
“I did not get chance at any university for failing in English in admission tests as I remained weak in English for not reading textbooks in my school,” she said.
“Syllabus for communicative English (up to Class XII) would be excellent for students' English learning if textbooks are followed systematically,” said Dr Muhammad Muhsin, associate professor of English and dean of arts faculty, Barisal University.
“But teachers and students often ignore textbooks and follow guide books for doing good results as question patterns of communicative English in JSC, SSC and HSC examinations enable students to score 80 percent marks without learning English well.”
Only seven students got qualifying marks for studying honours in English in last year's admission test of Barisal University, he added.
“English teachers encourage students to read guide books as they get financial benefit from publishers of such books,” said an English teacher seeking anonymity.
Nikhil Ranjan Chakrobarty, district educational officer, Jhalakathi, said he found teaching guides in some schools and warned the teachers of its bad effect.