Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
Since 1971, there had been no practical reforms in our education system. We are moving under the same wheel that we started from. The education advisor and education secretary of the present government are very talented and rich in experience.
With their rich and rational ideas, intelligence and wisdom, the anomalies of education are expected to be eliminated. Universal education can lead to building smart society. Education and Human resource development are complements to each other.
Education system and human resource development are complements to each other and by application of the two combined forces, modernity will be institutionalised. In 1974, the first Education Commission was formed under the leadership of Mohammad Dr. Kudrat-E-Khuda and other 11 Education Commissions/Committees have been formed so far till today. The aim of each commission was to create equal opportunities for all in the field of education without favoring any one.
In 2010, the National Education Policy states that the goal of education is, ‘To create a society without discrimination, to provide equal opportunities for education to all, regardless of spatial, social and economic status, according to talent and inclination, finally not to use education as a commodity for profit.’
That is to make education open to all, so that students can easily learn. It should focus and function as a problem solving agenda and engage the merits and creative thoughts to the flourishing trend of a welfare state.
Discriminatory education in the country is an obstacle to quality education. In particular, gender segregation in education does not meet the conditions of educational goals and there is variation in student learning across the curriculum.
Again the disparity in pay structure has widened the educational division. Moreover, due to lack of necessary things for education and different teaching methods, differences are seen in the teaching process. That is why in the context of Bangladesh, education should be open to all and should be said.
“Education is not only a human right, it is one of the areas of the social sector whose returns or results are not available, but education is the main catalyst for progress in economic and social aspects of people and society, it is universal in today’s world.
Therefore, teaching should not be matter of force; the method and content should be interesting and enjoyable to the children. To realise the dreams of our nation, we need to develop our young generation as human resources skilled in real education, knowledge and technology.
In this situation, if the structure of education cannot be changed or adjusted, the nation will be devoid of talent and leadership. Therefore, a non-discriminatory and democratic environment is very important in our education system.
At present education is being divided into two categories — general education and vocational or technical education. At present, the world is moving towards rapid development due to the advancement of general education as well as vocational education. Therefore, careereducation is essential for improvement and development.
Questions have also been raised about the usefulness of our education. A recent BIDS survey found that two-third of the highly educated population is unemployed. They are not getting any work. In other words, our education system is not able to create skilled and qualified manpower.
In this situation, the desired development of human resources cannot be expected. In that case, the government’s development strategy will have to change. Development that makes the rich richer and the poor weaker is not expected. We have to ensure transparency and accountability of all government programs adopted by the government for the poor so that no one can deprive the rights of the poor.
How modern and job-oriented is our education system? How public is our education system? Modern, inclusive and discrimination-free nation building will not be possible without universal education system.
Transition to modernity will not be possible without life and job-oriented education. It cannot be accepted that our education system benefits our children in the pre-primary stage. Pre-primary education may be limited to the family level as we have seen in our early age. All classes from primary level to higher secondary should follow first term, second term and annual examinations each having separate syllabus asbefore.
Moreover there may be tutorial exams and some other assessment reports may be prepared on extra-curricular activities such as sports, debate, seminar and workshop speech may be encompassed in a group system. With this, a competitive environment will prevail among the students. Vocational selection system will not be average; it will specifically be trade based.
Co-curricular activities should be made compulsory in the education system at all primary and secondary levels. We observe that in developed countries, their core curriculum includes co-curricular activities such as debates, lectures, sports, seminars and workshop based activities.
All these co-curriculum should be considered as an essential subject of education and the overall evaluation system should be ensured. Students should be focused on career development and overall assessment. We hope that this interim government will accept this challenge of change and take proper and effective steps to solve the education crisis.
The interim government has taken a good initiative of reforms immediate after their oath. All the previous school-college committees were dissolvedby the education ministry which was applauded by people. Besides, I believe that by the able leadership of present Education Adviser and Secretary, all syndicated ill activities will be eliminated from the ministry of education as soon as possible. Above all promotion, posting and appointments will be conducted free, fair and neutral.
(The writer is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar and VDP).