Ranjit Podder :
A day long workshop on some aspects of the National Education Policy 2010 was organized at National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) on 1st June last. In the preface of the policy, the honourable Prime Minister said, “I am very sorry and heavy-hearted to think of the misfortunes of the people of our country.” There are some guidelines in the policy about how to get rid of those said misfortunes. The policy was published opening up a new era to overhaul Bangladesh education system. Education has always been a driving force for improving life and livelihood; a force that make children more humanistic. It is said that the more a nation is educated, the more prosperous they are. Enrolment in education has increased gradually and life and living standard has improved much by the time since the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. The said policy puts emphasis on science, technical, information and communication technology, and moral education for overall growth of our young learners. The education policy offers a good guideline to make our education world-standard and more humanistic through improving quality in education, improving science, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and moral education at primary and secondary levels. However, there are some apparent obstacles on the way to implementing the expectations of the policy. NAEM organized a day-day workshop with 34 Associate Professors from different government colleges with a view to knowing their opinions on some issues which deserve to be taken care of. The workshop participants worked in four groups and they presented their opinions before other participants, NAEM faculties, and answered questions raised by others.
The workshop was conducted by Associate Professors Dr Abdus Satter, Md Akteruzzaman Khan, Ms Hosneara Begum, Ranjit Podder, and Sheikh Shahbaz Riad. Professor Dr AFM Shafiqur Rahman, Director General (Routine work in-charge), NAEM inaugurated the workshop as the chief guest; Professor Zaki Imam, Director, Administration and Finance; Professor Ferdous Ara, Director, Planning and Development; Ms Shamsunnahar, Training Specialist; Ms Sabiha Yesmin, Training Specialist; Mr Kalachand Shil, Deputy Director, NAEM; Mr Ayet Ali, Assistant Director, and some other NAEM faculties were present in the workshop. The workshop intended to explore answers to the following questions: What steps can be taken to make our secondary education employment-friendly? What steps can be taken to popularize science education at secondary level? What are the barriers on the way to implementing ICT education in Bangladesh? How can moral education be brought under practices and assessment system?
The purpose of the workshop is to know what our participants, understand by quality employment-friendly education; how the condition of science education in the country can be improved; barriers to ICT education; and how moral education can be brought under practice and assessment.
The major findings of the workshop were as follows: In order to increase employment opportunities, there should be some essential trades (refrigerator, TV, air cooler repair; Fisheries, Lives stock, nursery, driving, hotel management and tourism etc.) that may enhance the scope to be employed by recruiters or to be self-employed. One of the groups claimed that secondary education could be made employment-friendly through teaching ICT and introducing outsourcing to students.
Another group opined that participatory approach through the inclusion of practical activities might attract students to take up science. Moreover, a good number of well-educated, trained and motivated science teachers should be recruited in order to promote science education in Bangladesh. If required, those highly qualified science teachers could be recruited with higher pay. Additionally, there should be a state policy to recruit candidates with science background to higher posts; there should be fund for research; organizing science fair in every district, sub-district and even at institution level; presenting science topics using technology; and students taking up science could be provided with stipend. Barriers in ICT education were identified as poor infrastructure, high price of ICT goods, and lack of trained and motivated teachers.
The group which worked with moral education said that ‘although we are getting brighter students through our education system, we are not getting a good number of better people having moral and ethical values. Social values and morality should be practised and assessed on 50 marks through continuous assessment throughout the year. Later on, marks obtained out of 50 can be sent to the respective education boards for preparing the final results.’ Students’ behavior with teachers and classmates, honesty in dealings, participation in the class and institution programs can be brought under assessment.
If students are involved in different activities and they are assessed on the basis of their honest behavior and motivation level, students’ behavioral pattern may change and moral values can be instilled in them. It is important to instill moral values, honesty, patriotism, accountability and social responsibility into the youths for creating a society where justice will prevail.
Professor Dr AFM Shafiqur Rahman hoped that the findings of the workshop would be of great use for better implementation of the education policy as well as the curriculum 2012. Special Guest Professor Ferdous Ara asked the participating teachers to work for the proper implementation of the education policy and the new curriculum with a view to improving the quality in education. She also said that it would be difficult to implement the policy unless allocation of money for education is increased. Professor Zaki Imam, Director (Admin and Finance), NAEM, requested the participants to organize more workshops on educational issues and to conduct research in the field of higher education in order to improve the quality of tertiary education.
He believed that the sub-themes of the workshop were so important because the sub-themes spoke about the employment of students; ICT teaching and use in education; popularizing science at secondary level; and moral education. The workshop participants claimed that they should organize more workshops to make the policy guidelines and the curriculum expectations clear to the implementers.
Unless the expectations are made clear to the implementers, implementation rate will be poorer, they said for sure. If there are understanding gaps among the implementers, the policy and the curriculum cannot be properly materialized. Professor Mahfuza Shahnaz, Course Director, asked the participants to conduct action research in order to solve educational problems and for better understanding of problems.
The ultimate goals of Education Policy 2010 and new curriculum 2012 are to evolve an education process that is oriented to creativity, practicability and productivity; and to remove socio-economic discrimination irrespective of race, religion and creed. In order to achieve the mentioned goals and objectives, the Education Policy 2010 puts emphasis on science, ICT, and Moral Education. Qualitative change in our education system is the most important priority of the day (MoE, 2010). The participants believed that there has been a qualitative and quantitative change in Bangladesh education.
However, they believed that the state set goals could not be achieved through different streams of education such as main stream general education, madrasa, English medium and English version, and 11 kinds of primary education. The participants promised that if the education authority takes necessary steps to implement the National Education Policy 2010 and the curriculum 2012, they will engage themselves to pave the way to better education for our future generation.
A day long workshop on some aspects of the National Education Policy 2010 was organized at National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) on 1st June last. In the preface of the policy, the honourable Prime Minister said, “I am very sorry and heavy-hearted to think of the misfortunes of the people of our country.” There are some guidelines in the policy about how to get rid of those said misfortunes. The policy was published opening up a new era to overhaul Bangladesh education system. Education has always been a driving force for improving life and livelihood; a force that make children more humanistic. It is said that the more a nation is educated, the more prosperous they are. Enrolment in education has increased gradually and life and living standard has improved much by the time since the independence of Bangladesh in 1971. The said policy puts emphasis on science, technical, information and communication technology, and moral education for overall growth of our young learners. The education policy offers a good guideline to make our education world-standard and more humanistic through improving quality in education, improving science, using Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and moral education at primary and secondary levels. However, there are some apparent obstacles on the way to implementing the expectations of the policy. NAEM organized a day-day workshop with 34 Associate Professors from different government colleges with a view to knowing their opinions on some issues which deserve to be taken care of. The workshop participants worked in four groups and they presented their opinions before other participants, NAEM faculties, and answered questions raised by others.
The workshop was conducted by Associate Professors Dr Abdus Satter, Md Akteruzzaman Khan, Ms Hosneara Begum, Ranjit Podder, and Sheikh Shahbaz Riad. Professor Dr AFM Shafiqur Rahman, Director General (Routine work in-charge), NAEM inaugurated the workshop as the chief guest; Professor Zaki Imam, Director, Administration and Finance; Professor Ferdous Ara, Director, Planning and Development; Ms Shamsunnahar, Training Specialist; Ms Sabiha Yesmin, Training Specialist; Mr Kalachand Shil, Deputy Director, NAEM; Mr Ayet Ali, Assistant Director, and some other NAEM faculties were present in the workshop. The workshop intended to explore answers to the following questions: What steps can be taken to make our secondary education employment-friendly? What steps can be taken to popularize science education at secondary level? What are the barriers on the way to implementing ICT education in Bangladesh? How can moral education be brought under practices and assessment system?
The purpose of the workshop is to know what our participants, understand by quality employment-friendly education; how the condition of science education in the country can be improved; barriers to ICT education; and how moral education can be brought under practice and assessment.
The major findings of the workshop were as follows: In order to increase employment opportunities, there should be some essential trades (refrigerator, TV, air cooler repair; Fisheries, Lives stock, nursery, driving, hotel management and tourism etc.) that may enhance the scope to be employed by recruiters or to be self-employed. One of the groups claimed that secondary education could be made employment-friendly through teaching ICT and introducing outsourcing to students.
Another group opined that participatory approach through the inclusion of practical activities might attract students to take up science. Moreover, a good number of well-educated, trained and motivated science teachers should be recruited in order to promote science education in Bangladesh. If required, those highly qualified science teachers could be recruited with higher pay. Additionally, there should be a state policy to recruit candidates with science background to higher posts; there should be fund for research; organizing science fair in every district, sub-district and even at institution level; presenting science topics using technology; and students taking up science could be provided with stipend. Barriers in ICT education were identified as poor infrastructure, high price of ICT goods, and lack of trained and motivated teachers.
The group which worked with moral education said that ‘although we are getting brighter students through our education system, we are not getting a good number of better people having moral and ethical values. Social values and morality should be practised and assessed on 50 marks through continuous assessment throughout the year. Later on, marks obtained out of 50 can be sent to the respective education boards for preparing the final results.’ Students’ behavior with teachers and classmates, honesty in dealings, participation in the class and institution programs can be brought under assessment.
If students are involved in different activities and they are assessed on the basis of their honest behavior and motivation level, students’ behavioral pattern may change and moral values can be instilled in them. It is important to instill moral values, honesty, patriotism, accountability and social responsibility into the youths for creating a society where justice will prevail.
Professor Dr AFM Shafiqur Rahman hoped that the findings of the workshop would be of great use for better implementation of the education policy as well as the curriculum 2012. Special Guest Professor Ferdous Ara asked the participating teachers to work for the proper implementation of the education policy and the new curriculum with a view to improving the quality in education. She also said that it would be difficult to implement the policy unless allocation of money for education is increased. Professor Zaki Imam, Director (Admin and Finance), NAEM, requested the participants to organize more workshops on educational issues and to conduct research in the field of higher education in order to improve the quality of tertiary education.
He believed that the sub-themes of the workshop were so important because the sub-themes spoke about the employment of students; ICT teaching and use in education; popularizing science at secondary level; and moral education. The workshop participants claimed that they should organize more workshops to make the policy guidelines and the curriculum expectations clear to the implementers.
Unless the expectations are made clear to the implementers, implementation rate will be poorer, they said for sure. If there are understanding gaps among the implementers, the policy and the curriculum cannot be properly materialized. Professor Mahfuza Shahnaz, Course Director, asked the participants to conduct action research in order to solve educational problems and for better understanding of problems.
The ultimate goals of Education Policy 2010 and new curriculum 2012 are to evolve an education process that is oriented to creativity, practicability and productivity; and to remove socio-economic discrimination irrespective of race, religion and creed. In order to achieve the mentioned goals and objectives, the Education Policy 2010 puts emphasis on science, ICT, and Moral Education. Qualitative change in our education system is the most important priority of the day (MoE, 2010). The participants believed that there has been a qualitative and quantitative change in Bangladesh education.
However, they believed that the state set goals could not be achieved through different streams of education such as main stream general education, madrasa, English medium and English version, and 11 kinds of primary education. The participants promised that if the education authority takes necessary steps to implement the National Education Policy 2010 and the curriculum 2012, they will engage themselves to pave the way to better education for our future generation.
(The writer is an Associate Professor currently posted in Govt. Teachers’ Training College)
