Stop constantly experimenting with primary and secondary education

Why should Bangladesh’s education at the primary and secondary level undergo change each year? Someone has rightly said that Bangladesh’s education system undergoes so many changes that they can be better compared to frequent digging of roads in Dhaka that knows no stop.

As a result, the very purpose of education is being hampered by inflicting harm to students themselves.

Bangladesh’s education policymakers are failing to realize that this constant experiment with the content of teaching, that is textbooks, examination and the grading system, is impacting very negatively the quality of education. Don’t make too much fuss with coaching and notebooks.

This is not the real problem of education in Bangladesh which is lamentably failing to catch up with not just the world, but the neighbouring countries in South Asia also.

This poor scenario of education aptly reinforces the belief that in the mind of education policymakers there is no clear vision of what should be the standard of Bangladesh’s education at the primary and secondary level.

It also makes the assumption true that education policymakers themselves do not have the idea about what they are dealing with.

The whole education system seems to be in the hands of incompetent people.

The government officials who always keep on going abroad want to introduce in Bangladesh’s education system what they see in foreign countries without knowing whether that would be compatible with Bangladesh’s very own culture and tradition.

As a result, education learned by the students fails to develop in them the needed moral character on the one hand and prepares them for the practical world on the other hand.

While there remains a constant controversy with the content in the syllabus in the country, it is still more worrying that school students are being taught what they should not be at this level: party politics.

Making students utter political party slogans in the classroom is just preposterous.

In any case, the guiding principle of education at the primary and secondary level should be to develop the moral character of the students; they should learn manners, values, and of course, truthfulness.

They must also be taught to be patriotic without making them aware of party politics.

If primary and secondary level education does not build the base and an urge to become a decent human being in the tender-aged students with the skills in their areas of choice, this education will bear little value.