MAILBOX

70 years into partition

My heartfelt congratulations and thanks to the Star Weekend team for coming up with an issue dedicated to the partition of the subcontinent. In it, familiar issues like mass human displacement and religious intolerance were brought up through informative and in-depth stories. The articles in the Star Weekend were interesting and worth reading. The reason for this was that the stories not only carried words of personal experiences but also elaborated on the larger sociopolitical realities of the time. They endeavoured to explore how the huge gap between the Hindu and Muslim communities determined the fate of the refugees who were homeless and did not have any place to go. They also showed how the partition of 1947 strained the relations between the two communities giving rise to a race to establish domination or supremacy in the region. The quest for the latter was systematic and widespread, which made up the main theme of the stories. Even 70 years into partition, readers are still impacted by stories of the plight of the people in the subcontinent, their uncertainties about why partition happened, and the impact it has had on the present generation and our countries.

Anika Tasneem

Dhanmondi, Dhaka

Science on the decline

Even a few years back, the number of science students was booming. But within the timespan of 2-3 years, the number of students studying science has fallen drastically. Firstly, because graduating with a background in science from school or university is much tougher. A scarcity of science teachers combined with a lack of practical classes also account for this decline. In addition, teachers mostly teach from books and don't use a constructive approach, i.e. active learning. Many teachers also come from a non-science background and yet they teach science subjects which means a poor understanding of science and therefore, difficulties in teaching at higher levels causing students to lose interest.

There are few employment opportunities in our country for students who graduate from science, except in medicine and engineering. In fear of this scarcity of jobs, many choose other subjects. Our world, however, is advancing scientifically and so bringing back students into science is crucial. Some of the most important scientific inventions previously were from our region and we would like to see more coming forth. For this, our state has to play an important role in reviving science education.

Rafid Alam

North South University, Dhaka