Curriculum is the overall framework of the education system. Curriculum is formulated as a set of instructions on what students will study, who will study, where to study, how long to study, how to study, what kind of learning material will be, what kind of teaching materials to use, etc. It is an integrated outline of learning experiences, reading materials and teaching activities designed with specific objectives through which students acquire knowledge, skills and objectives. After analysing the socio-economic-cultural-religious and geographical situation of a country, steps are taken to formulate and implement a realistic curriculum. The educational programme of every country is conducted in view of the educational needs, goals and objectives of that country. There are differences in the society and culture of each country and that is the reason why the educational system varies in different societies.
The curriculum structure of a country is based on these things that is: state or national philosophy or ideology; socio-economic infrastructure conditions; social and cultural context; national heritage, history and values; religious consciousness and beliefs of the people; People’s contemporary lifestyles; traditional education system of the country; availability of material resources; present and future needs of students.
Curriculum changes and reforms are a normal process. Social, cultural, political, economic and environmental changes are constantly taking place at the national and international levels. Especially in the field of science, information and communication technology there has been a great change. In this process, educational development is completed through several successive steps. These stages of educational development are setting educational goals and objectives, selecting content, organising and implementing learning experiences and teaching-learning techniques. These activities are accomplished through monitoring and evaluation.
In the 50 years of our independence, the curriculum has been changed and revised several times, but the 2021 curriculum was the most misunderstood at all levels. As a result, it has been widely criticised at all levels, from parents, students, teachers to educators’ and curriculum experts. Note that basic and important components of the curriculum such as syllabus, textbooks, teaching-learning methods and assessment methods and techniques have all become subject of debate. Social media has created an opportunity to fuel this issue. There has never been such a big debate and misunderstanding about curriculum in recent times. The lack of confidence and misunderstanding about the curriculum among teachers was due to lack of proper dissemination and training. Even the best educational programmes can fail due to the lack of adequate dissemination of the curriculum. From the very formulation of the 2021 curriculum, a sense of restlessness and hurriedness has always been observed in every step. The lack of professionalism among those who were in responsibility of this curriculum formulation and implementation process became visible to the nation. Finally, efforts were made to forcefully implement the curriculum. Although in the end it did not happen.
In the current changing situation, the breeze of reforms has started to flow in various sectors. In the field of education, especially, initiatives have been started to revise the curriculum. As an initial step, some new steps have been taken by suspending the National Curriculum Framework 2021. As an education worker, I would like to place some expectations on curriculum reform in this extraordinary opportunity of curriculum reform.
As education is a complete and necessary field or discipline of knowledge like bengali, english, medicine or engineering so the experts in curriculum and pedagogy should be included with subjects experts in curriculum process significantly. Because hundreds of experts are coming out every year from the reputed universities and colleges of the country in the field of “education” and “curriculum” pedagogy. A significant number of them have been working in various organisations for the past 25-30 years with reputation and competence. I am calling on the policy making body to use the qualified among them in the reform and development of education. Qualitative changes can be expected if they get posted in education related departments.
The educational system of every country has an important influence of that country’s philosophy of education. The influence of various educational philosophies has been observed in the education system of our country in the last 50 years. Our education was deeply influenced by idealism, naturalism and applied philosophy. More recently materialism has been given more importance. Due to which the philosophies of the famous educational philosophers of the subcontinent have been neglected. We expect that education philosophy of great philosophers and educationists like Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Ishwar
Chandra Vidyasagar, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Khan Bahadur Abdur Rahman Khan, Begum Rokeya, Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah, Kusumkumari Das, Khan Bahadur Ahsan Ullah, Principal Ibrahim Khan, Kazi Emdadull Haque, Maulana Moniruzzaman Islamabadi, Begum Shamsunnahar Mahmud, Sunirmal Basu, Kazi Quader Newaz, Poet Gulam Mostafa, Abul Fazal should be get great importance.
The weakest aspect of our education system is the assessment system, especially in public examination system. At present, the process of evaluation of examination papers shows that a teacher has to evaluate two to three hundred examination papers in 20/25 days. Evaluating papers while maintaining quality is very challenging in such a short time. Besides, there is a class of teachers who don’t want to examine papers, because they have alternative sources of income. Another there are a group of class teachers who lobbied and brought more exams papers. On the other hand, the process of receiving and submitting exam papers from the education board is disrespectful to the teachers. However, the board authorities can improve this system if they wish. The number of exam papers per teacher should be reduced. The evaluation fee of the examination paper should be increased. The evaluation process should be brought into accountability. The evaluation fee should be paid within one month of the examination paper evaluation. All teachers should be forced to evaluate exam papers. Those who will supply the exam paper will arrange the paper and wait for the teachers. It is their responsibility to deliver the paper packets to a private or public vehicle.
More attention should be paid to sensitive issues like question setting and moderation, ensuring selection and accommodation of question setters and moderators in particular. For example, those who come from outside Dhaka have to arrange accommodation within the board. When they come to Dhaka, their main concern is where to stay at night!
Global climate is changing. Temperatures are rising all over the world. The temperature of our country is increasing faster than others. We need to find long-term and meaningful solutions in respect of schools days and working hours. Our academic year needs to be reformed considering the weather, climate, six seasons and human performance of our country.
As an education activitist for the past 10 years, I have been trying to draw attention to reforming our primary and secondary academic year. It is very true that the most academically friendly six months of the current academic year are October, November, December, January, February, and March. But most of these months are spent due to admissions in the new academic year including Test exams, Annual exams, public exams like SSC, HSC etc. On the other hand, the actual education programmes take place in the months of April, May, June, July, August and September when the weather becomes extremely hostile due to high temperatures, unbearable heat, thunder storms, cyclones, rains, floods, landslides etc.
I have researched and consulted with 5000 teachers over the past 10 years and presented a proposal for reforming the academic year in various seminar discussions. I have also tried to attract the attention of the policy makers. Many of my respected teachers, mentors, colleagues, numerous student, and trainees have found positive aspects in this proposal.
Analysing climate changes of our country, the most comfortable and study-friendly weather is from October to March. But in the current academic year, this six-month period is mainly spent on various types of internal and public examinations, admission tests, book distribution and annual sports activities. On the other hand, the period from April to September is different from other times of the year with rains, floods, storms, droughts, and heat and power outages. However, the whole year’s educational activities have to be carried out in this hostile climate and environment.
Therefore, if October to March and April to September can be made the new academic year based on semesters, then the results will be more fruitful than the current ones. In this case, classes may be happened in the very morning of the day in April and May but students will have to come to school to complete the assignment, practical works etc.Since the workload of teachers will be less, this time can be used for refresher training and other short-term training periods.
Finally, I humbly want to say that 50 years of independence have passed. But the unfortunate fact is that education has not yet been made the main tool of development. Education was not recognised as a separate subject and department. Suitable and skilled person could not be found and employed in all fields including education.As an optimistic activist of education, I am expecting strong, sustainable, qualitative and meaningful education reforms.