Once famed for their educational standards, schools in Sylhet have
lost their dignity, with the quality of education a far cry from what
was expected earlier, guardians of students say.
Successive governments’ indifference, mismanagement and lack of
planning are attributed to the fall in the standards of some highly
acclaimed institutes in the area. Blue Bird High School. Sylhet
Government Pilot High School, Sylhet Agrogami Girl’s High School,
Scholarshome Collegiate School, Shahajalal Jameya Mirabazar, Patantula
Jameya, Jalalabad International School, were once the best educational
institutions in Sylhet.
Locals say due to the fall in the quality education, the rich in the
area enroll their children at different schools and kindergartens in
the posh areas of Upashahor, Mirabazar, Shibganj, Subidbazar for
better quality education.
Unplanned urbanisation has resulted the vicinity being surrounded by
residential-cum-commercial structures, inviting round-the-clock
traffic jams, hardly allowing people to move freely, let alone think
about ensuring quality education. The rate of literacy and higher
education is increasing across the country, but for Sylhet it is
decreasing every year.
Shahidul Islam Upashahor resident who was returning home from Dakshin
Surma with his child, said that quality education is now absent in the
schools of Sylhet. All the schools in Sylhet have lost their fame for
quality and are now operating their academic affairs in name only, he
added.
A lot of students of the best Sylhet schools are now heavyweights in
national politics and at different tiers of the government. Now every
year a large number of students fail in the SSC examinations, though
teachers and school authorities deny the allegation that quality
teaching is absent here.
Susmita Akter, assistant headmaster of Girl’s School, said, “It is not
true that the quality of teaching in this school has fallen. In Sylhet
city, there are 17 government schools and this school obtains a place
among them.”
Guardians who have enough money want to enroll their children in
English medium or English version schools. There are hardly any
English medium schools in Sylhet, he added.
Prodip Placid said, “We have started English medium in 2008, but are
yet to get qualified English teachers. The fact that qualified
teachers do not want to come to this area is only because of traffic
jams, he observed.
Director General of Directorate and Secondary and Higher Education,
echoed the same views. He added that the rich want to admit their
children in schools in the city’s aristocratic areas. -Our
Correspondent
