Quality teachers for quality education

Dr.M. A.Maleque :
Education is a continuous process of enlightening human being. It aims to bring desirable changes in human behavior as per needs and values of the society. The term ‘quality’ is of course, implied in education. It refers to some abstract values in terms of success, delight, satisfaction, happy etc. Quality education is a system of learning that produces graduates who can meet the needs of the society and face the challenges of time proficiently within their area of study. We often emphasize on the term ‘quality’ in education while the graduates of the educational institutions could not fully satisfy the needs of the outside society. Nowadays, quantity of successful graduates in different levels has remarkably been increased in Bangladesh but quality of them is hardly increased. However, question arises as to what needs to be done in education sector for improving the quality of graduates? Where is the problem located in teaching-learning process? Why do some graduates in respective level perform well while others fail to do so? Who are responsible for this? When would the respective authorities like to take action in this regard? How much does it cost or save in the process of improving the capacity of teachers for imparting quality education? This article serves to seek answers to the aforesaid questions.
Institutional education is a systematic teaching-learning process in which knowledge, skills and habits of a group of people are transferred from one generation to the next generation. Our learned teachers efficiently accomplish this great job through teaching, training and research on their respective disciplines. For this reason, students or alumni can always remember some devoted teachers for their effective classroom teaching and contribution. Teacher’s deliberations and earnest efforts in teaching in fact touch the mind of learners. It consequently matters in changing the behavior of students. Socrates (469-399 B.C), Greek philosopher and called teacher of mankind, views that the teacher in teaching process drags out the idea from students’ mind through question and answer as the gardener blooms the flower in the garden. Aristotle (384-322 B.C) says education is such an instrument through which a teacher can reveal the hidden power of human being. John Dewey (1851-1952) US educationist and called father of education, opines that education is the way of self-realization. It constantly reorganizes the experiences and buds the potentialities of human being for better performance.
The National Education Policy 2010 has been deliberately introduced for achieving the vision 2021. It aims to make them good citizens with intelligence, conscious, patience and creativity in future. Bangladesh government has been striving hard to achieve Education for All by 2015 for a long time. Curriculum of primary level has also been updated in 2012 and teachers’ training in this regard is going on. Bangladesh government has already provided laptops with multimedia in 13700 secondary schools, 5200 madrasas and 1600 colleges (www.mof.gov.bd). In addition, from each institution one teacher has already been trained on how to make digital contents through power point presentation. Besides, ICT in Education Master Plan has fully projected for applying the time befitting IT in education sector. The National Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB), for the first time, launched all curriculum and text books in its website www.nctb.gov.bd . Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project has also introduced Academic Innovation Fund for the purpose of encouraging the creativity in higher educational institutions.
 Only teachers’ community with modern education and training could do this great job in teaching and sharing knowledge with students. This process essentially includes its time-befitting curriculum (comprehensive plan of education), specialists, syllabus, books, institutional authorities, teachers, students, guardians, information technology, environment, mode of examination and different stakeholders inside and outside. Here I focus the inevitability of enhancing the capacity of teachers for quality education in the years to come. This can be discussed to some extend as follows:
Teachers by profession transfer and transmit the knowledge, skills and habits of the well reputed personalities of different ages and countries to students from generation to the next. Teachers must improve their capacity for disseminating the latest information available in the website. They have to upgrade their knowledge and skills in line with the innovation of knowledge and skills. Accordingly, teachers have to prepare their students so that they go ahead with the mode of creativity. In this regard, the more teachers practice computers in classroom teaching the more students come forward to the latest knowledge and skills. In-house regular workshop on enhancing the capacity of teachers through IT presentation may pave the way of improving teachers’ capacity. The arrangement of regular workshop and seminar will not only improve teachers’ capacity but also students will be benefitted from the multimedia classroom teaching.
Chinese proverb goes that if I hear I forget, if I see I can remember and if you involve me to do I can understand. Multimedia presentation actually draws the attention of students in classroom teaching and makes students’ understanding better than simple lecture. If one student can remember the topic and understand well from teachers’ multimedia presentation then it is certainly favorable for his or her creativity. In addition, teachers have to prepare themselves well earlier for conducting multimedia presentation in classroom teaching. Consequently, teachers can gradually improve themselves on their discipline with power-point presentation. There is enough opportunity in multimedia presentation to make the session more attractive and effective. Students can also pay more attention to the multimedia classroom teaching. Keeping this view in mind that today’s students are the citizens of tomorrow. The good students are consequently good citizens of tomorrow. Therefore, improving teachers’ IT capacity ultimately contributes towards enhancing the quality of students.
Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) in Bangladesh recruits the primary teachers through competitive examination. After appointment, primary teachers have to complete Certificate in Education (C-In-Ed) course conducted by Primary Teachers Institute (PTI). The Non-government Teachers Registration and Certification Authority (NTRCA) prepares the panel of qualified teachers through competitive examination for secondary, higher secondary and degree level educational institutions. After appointment, teachers have to complete Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) course conducted by Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs). Bangladesh Public Service Commission (BPSC) recruits BCS (General Education) Cadre and BCS (Technical Education) Cadre officers through nation-wide competitive examination for posting government Colleges and Polytechnic Institutes respectively. Teachers, after appointment, initially have to complete four-month long Foundation Training Course (FTC) conducted by National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM), Ministry of Education, Dhaka.
The aforesaid training courses are specially imparted IT modules for the participants. But in practice, the trained teachers hardly use Laptop and multimedia in classroom teaching in colleges. Because, inadequate initiatives from teachers couple with non- suitable classroom situation and lack of computer practice seriously frustrated the application of IT facilities at college level education. Institutional authorities usually pay more attention to a few teachers who could rightly handle the available computers for on-line admission process with registration and download results from the website. This is a partial use of the IT facilities. Teachers and concerned authorities must come forward for disseminating knowledge and skills with multimedia presentation in classroom teaching in the age of global competition.
What needs to be done?
English proverb goes that where there’s a will there’s a way. It is very well-known to all students and teachers all over the world. We used to write a paragraph or essay many times entitled the said proverb in student life in different levels. By now, there is no scope to avoid the demand of the use of IT in educational institutions. Institutional authorities can do it easily if s/he desires trained teachers must use multimedia presentation in classroom teaching. The use of IT in classroom teaching will not only enhance the capacity of teachers but also increase attendance of students as well as they will pay more attention in teaching-learning activities. Consequently, multimedia presentation will positively change the classroom situation. It will enhance the creativity of teachers and students in visualizing the information in attractive ways. Power point presentation exposes the problems in more visible way where students can understand the issue more easily and develop his/her ideas with their own language. This is the core point of creativity in teaching-learning activities leading to quality education.
In fine, initial hesitation owing to non-practice on improving the capacity of trained teachers for quality education may overcome with the determination of institutional authorities and concerned teachers. I think teachers must come forward first with honesty for professional development. Thus initial afraid and hesitation of applying IT in classroom teaching may be overcome through a team approach. One study circle may be constituted with trained and interested teachers for introducing multimedia presentation in classroom teaching. This should be done for the greater interest of imparting quality education and improving the capacity of teachers. There is no need of extra budget for this purpose. The available amount collected for ICT sector is more than enough. The probable expenditure may be incurred from the said ICT fund subject to approval of the institutional authority. In the age of global competition, enhancing the capacity of teachers is not only the demand of age but also indispensable for imparting quality education in every educational institution of Bangladesh.