Yesterday (October 5) was World Teachers’ Day. This year’s theme for World Teachers’ Day is ‘Reframing Teaching as a Participatory Profession’. The day has been celebrated worldwide on this day every year since 1995, in recognition of the joint recommendations of UNESCO and the International Labor Organization, to commemorate the rights, dignity, and contributions of teachers.
As elsewhere in the world, the day was also observed in Bangladesh yesterday to encourage and inspire all teachers through recognition of their outstanding contributions to education and public awareness raising. Teaching is a prestigious profession worldwide. Teachers are called the nation builders. After parents, teachers play the biggest role in shaping a person’s life.
Even developed and many developing countries of the world give utmost importance to the respect and dignity of teachers. But Bangladesh is far behind in this regard. Finland is recognized as the best in the world in terms of education system up to the school level. Their curriculum is designed with teachers at the center.
Bangladesh is an exception in this regard. Here, the curriculum is repeatedly tested. There is test pressure on students. The two public exams from grades 6 to 12 increase the mental pressure of competition instead of helping to develop students’ creativity. In Finland, only one public exam is taken after 12 years of education. In that case, even if the student fails, he or she has the opportunity to retake the same subject.
The training and salary structure of teachers in Bangladesh is still weak. No matter how much the curriculum is changed repeatedly in the country, the desired change in the education system is not possible without improving the quality of teachers. We are not able to show that trust and respect towards teachers. Teachers have not been able to become the lifeblood of the education system.
Mentionable, Bangladesh ranks 45th out of 49 countries on the continent. And when comparing teacher salaries among the South Asian countries, Bangladesh is at the bottom. Therefore, teachers’ recruitment and curriculum must be well-planned. According to UNESCO, 20 percent of a country’s budget or 6 percent of GDP should be allocated to the education sector. In contrast, our education sector allocation is less than 2 percent of GDP.
The significance of World Teachers’ Day should be preserved by properly implementing the commitment made by the government regarding education in the constitution, including improving the quality of education. May the status of the teaching community in Bangladesh be enhanced?
