Masum Billah
Bangladesh has occupied a unique position in the globe in many respects both in positive and negative senses. The distribution of new textbooks at the beginning of every academic year free of cost among the learners of primary and secondary levels again has created a unique example in the world. Colossal amounts of textbooks are being reached to all the students with some disruptions at the beginning of every academic year with an effort which may be second to none in the world.The government has been distributing books at the very beginning of academic sessions for years and has so far distributed around 121.38 crore copies this year. All the textbooks have been uploaded to the National Curriculum and Textbook Board website. This year the government has planned to distribute nearly 30 crore copies of textbooks to more than 3.73 crore students of classes I to IX despite the back-to-back shutdown. With due festivities, January 2 was observed as the first day of the new academic session. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid inaugurated the festival by releasing balloons at the capital’s Government Laboratory School. He handed books to students coming from four schools and one madrasah. Some students were skipping around in joy, while others were flipping through the books. Many parents and teachers also joined the fun. The smell of new books hung in the air, with many of the students holding balloons and cheering. More than a thousand students from BCSIR High School, Dhanmandi Government Girls High School, Qamrunnesa Government Girls High School and Hafez Abdur Razzak Dakhil Madrasah attended the festival.
Getting new books at hand at the beginning of the school year definitely gives a special kind of pleasure to the young students. The smell of new books really makes them overexcited.” I am very happy to get new books. I will start reading them as soon as I get back home,” said Sumayia, a student from Qamrunnesa Govt. Girls High School. This undoubtedly represents the jubilant mind of the students who have got new textbooks. A parent observed “Getting books on the first day of the session will encourage them to learn more.” The government has printed about 29,96,75,938 copies of textbooks to distribute among 3,73,36,672 students of primary, secondary, ebtedai and dakhil. madarasahs and technical institutions this year. Over 11.59 crore copies of 33 subjects are for over 2.31 crore primary students, 1.74 crore copies in 34 subjects for some 26 lakh ebtedai students, over 13.59 crore copies of 114subjects for 92.58 lakh secondary and English medium students, 16.63 lakh copies of 16 subjects for 1.86 lakh SSC vocational students and 2.86 crore copies in 71 subjects for 21.17 lakh Dakhil and Dakhil vocational students.
The free distribution of textbooks retains several positive implications. First of all, the students get the books at the same time (though students in some remote places get them late) across the country. As they get the books without any cost, they get a special kind of pleasure and excitement which cannot be bought by money or anything else. Our students have hardly any scope for excitement or pleasure, but the smell of new textbooks fills that gap. Then all the guardians, particularly the rural and slum guardians cannot buy books which discourages them from sending their children to schools. So, it attracts students to come to school. It indirectly reduces the number of dropouts from schools. It also makes the students attentive to their studies and increases their interest to come to schools. Our schools are still unfortunately not places of enjoyment for the students. So, they don’t find any interest or feel any attraction to go there. But the new books have added some value here. The school has a greater role in advising the students to be more attentive to studies as the schools distribute the books. All the schools can start and go forward their academic year harmoniously as the learning materials are in their hand at the same time.
I feel constrained to share an experience here in this connection. BRAC Education Program works in several countries of the world which sometimes gives us the scope to have insight into the textbooks and education systems of those countries. Very recently I had to review the textbooks of primary (class one to six) and junior secondary (class 7 to nine) of Sierra Leone where BRAC Education is in operation. All the textbooks of Mathematics, Science and English are really colourful, picturesque, with nice illustrations and good printing. Our textbooks lack all these which are the first and foremost condition to make them visually attractive to the students. One interesting thing is all the students of Sierra Leone don’t have the textbooks. Students of primary level get the books from the government free of cost but not all the students get them. The junior secondary level and above students are to buy books. 30-40 percent students don’t have the textbooks. They use the books in groups in the classroom. They hardly take the books to their homes. Why? The books are comparatively costly and all the students cannot afford to buy them. They do various project works at home based on the classroom instruction they attend. It allows them to become more creative and less book-based. Hence creativity is encouraged and students get more time to engage themselves in various activities lessening their dependence on textbooks. And no notes and guidebooks are necessary. Again, they don’t have the scope to be fed up with so many books and homework that our students face every day. Definitely our students are overburdened with books, homework and examinations. Finally, our students’ going to schools and coaching centers or teachers’ home have to bear extra expenditure and time. These things are absent in Sierra Leone education sytem.
Our efforts, measures and even laws have failed to stop private coaching, publishing and using guide and note books of lower quality. We have tried to ban note and guide books but still they flood the market. We have made law to stop private tuition, but it still proves to be a thriving business to many teachers and institutions. The better known institutions of the country produce students who are really meritorious, creative and have potentials but these institutions make them just result-oriented and exam based students. These students don’t develop harmoniously acquiring the twenty-first century skills such as debating, presentation and problem-solving skills. They are not allowed to exercise their creative faculties. They just remain busy with particular books and questions just to make a good grade in the public examinations. To ensure this, they go to coaching and private tutors and depend on note and guide books which tell them how to pass and get good grades following a very short-cut way. May be our textbooks fail to cater to the needs of our students, and this is why they cannot stop going to private teachers and using note and guide books.
The worse even is the fact that some private publishers have become the standard to set the questions of public examinations. What they set in their guide books, are set in the public examinations. They have become the model. Corruption still reigns supreme in the education offices. Of course, it is not possible by the education minister to bring a drastic change here. We must find out the lacking of our textbooks and develop really creative questions so that students need to utilise their own thoughts and creativity which will discourage them from meeting the private tutors. The guide book companies will develop new kind of books which will encourage students’ real engagement without following the means of ‘regurgitation.’ Closing down this so-called book industry suddenly seems to be absurd in the present set up. We must compel them to develop creative books.
(Masum Billah is the manager, BRAC Education Programme and vice-president: Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association (BELTA) Email: masumbillah65@gmail.com)
