Almost all are is praise that the education ministry has done a good job during the incumbent government, but the reality is different.
Quality teachers are at the heart for the development of education sector in all countries. In our country, around 99 percent secondary schools are non-government where less qualified teachers are recruited in exchange of bribe by party leaders as they are the influential members of the recruitment committees.The incumbents have done little to recruit the best, qualified and motivated teachers in the non-government secondary schools through the Public Sservice Commission. Special pay scale for teacher has not been introduced yet to attract the brilliant ones to the teaching profession.
Teacher Training Colleges are imparting vital role for the development of teachers of the secondary schools in our country. One can achieve Bachelor Degree by attending regular class in any one of the Government TTCs in one year but the same degree can be ontained with from the Bangladesh Open University (Government Varsity) by only attending classes 4 days a month that is only 48 days in a year.
Students of the secondary schools have been facing creative questions for some years and creative questions on Math have already started this year in grade VI, VII and IX but the TTCs are not following the creative questions they are using essay type questions. Many teachers of TTCs take only one to two classes a week and a few students are studying in the TTCs.
One terminal examination has been exempted as students had fewer contact hours in the schools. All students had to attend coaching in the schools after their school hours. So, students have become tired of staying longer in the schools and guardians have to pay to much extra money (per subject tk 300 three days a week).It has now become a regular class but have to pay extra money from the guardians.So, students have to go to coaching centre and private tutors as well.
Two days lost in each month due to collecting fees from the students and on that day no class are held.
We have got new curriculum after 17 years and according to it we have got text books which replete with mistakes and also replete with the old problems and definitions in the Math text books, some are difficult for the kids to understand as they were written by the university teachers who had no experience of teaching in secondary schools and had no pedagogical knowledge which was essential to write kids’ text books.Unnecessary items (recurring decimal; addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and simplification) are there in the new text book in the same manner.
Research shows that students learn better visually but pictures are hardly found in the Math Text books and if there is any it is so tiny and difficult to understand. Obviously, four-colour pictures are more attractive and also can be understood easily but are absent in the text books. Alternative solutions that help to understand math easily are hardly found. Real life problems could be added in the new text books to make studying math meaningful to students.
Physical Education and Art and Craft have been introduced as compulsory to all and Agriculture subject has been retained and each school has an agriculture teacher.
Many Intermediate colleges have more teachers in proportion to their students and can introduce grades IX and X immediately. In many areas particularly in the remote areas of Bangladesh secondary schools are few in number. In Dhaka the problkem is severe.
There is shortage of government secondary schools in all the divisional and district towns.
There has been an acute shortage of Headmaster, Assistant Headmasters and subject teachers (Math, English and Science) in the most of the 317 government secondary schools across the country for a long time.
We all know abut the quality of the education. My wife is a lecturer in a non-government school and college. She has found that some students of her class passed SSC in grade A in the last few years but did not have the caliber for even the passing grade. A good number of A plus holders could not pass the Dhaka University admission test examination in the previous year.
MM Khaleed Ahsan
Narayangonj
Khaleed Ahsan <mmkhaleed@gmail.com>
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