Implementing new curriculum will be challenging

With the passage of time, what we want and need, both domestically and globally, change. So, even if not frequently, it is necessary to update the curriculum accordingly. This change is of two types: one is to reform the existing curriculum, while the other is to update the curriculum as the world modernises and adopts newer technologies—that is, curriculum development. In 2012, we reformed the curriculum; what the government is doing now is curriculum development. With our economic growth and as per the needs of today, we had to change the curriculum.

However, while I appreciate the government's intent, I can't say the same about its method. I might be wrong, but it seems to me that the government, having been inspired by the education curriculum of Finland and other Scandinavian countries, has tried to copy and paste them. If you simply copy and paste another curriculum, that is "adoption." What we needed was "adaption"—to reconfigure the curriculum according to the sociocultural and economic realities of our country. And here is where the problems start. It will be difficult and, in some cases, impossible to implement it given the realities of our country.

There are many challenges to successfully implementing this new curriculum in Bangladesh. First, it does not exactly match our needs. Second, with respect to our teachers, it is difficult to implement this new curriculum given their quality and skills. At present, only a quarter of our teachers are capable enough to implement the new curriculum. Third, in the cities, there are 80-90 students per class. In rural areas, it is mostly around 60-70 students per class. In the countries whose curriculum we are trying to adopt, the class size is around 20-25 students, making it possible for teachers to pay attention to each and every student, identify their shortcomings and rectify them. That is not possible here.

Fourth, the evaluation system that the authorities have talked about is inadequate. It is mostly dependent on continuous evaluation—which I support. But they are placing too much weight on it. They have been unable to grasp the main concept of continuous evaluation. Having given students lessons, it is important to identify who has failed to fully grasp them, and also provide remedial coaching to make pupils competent. Only then can the teacher move on to the next lesson. In the new curriculum, nothing has been said about remedial coaching. Then, what is the point of continuous evaluation? The way they have introduced it is incomplete, because the main purpose of it is missing here.

It is important that we place equal importance on learning from experience and on learning by reading books. The new curriculum talks about learning from experience. But you cannot learn everything from experience alone. There are many subject matters that have to be taught theoretically, by explaining the concepts clearly to students. While we are focusing on students learning from experience, it is important to recognise that they are increasingly losing interest in reading. The lack of interest in reading books is not good. It is essential to maintain a balance between the two. I'm not talking about students being dependent on notebooks. Learning from textbooks, alongside their teachers explaining the concepts, should be enough.

But then we have to shift focus to our textbooks. We have some good textbooks, but we also have textbooks which don't benefit students much. And in some cases, they have quite a few errors. Without addressing this and other issues, it is not possible to successfully achieve the objectives that we are aiming for.

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) is responsible for preparing the curriculum and textbooks. Training teachers to implement the new curriculum is the responsibility of the Teacher's Training College. While the line directorates—Directorate of Primary Education and Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education—are responsible for implementing the curriculum, there has to be greater coordination among all the stakeholders. Those responsible for the implementation phase must be better aware of what's in the curriculum, and vice versa. Otherwise, these discrepancies will continue to persist. And there is a lot to be done in this regard.

Prof Siddiqur Rahman is former director of the Institute of Education and Research at the University of Dhaka.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

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