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Law alone cannot contain private tuition and coaching business

Nilratan Halder | November 23, 2017 00:00:00


The news that the Anti-Corruption Commission has recommended transfer of 522 teachers of Dhaka City's government schools outside the capital may have escaped most people's notice. But it should not. It is one of the most pragmatic steps ever suggested to dismantle the entrenched interest in the form of educational bane. Physicians, particularly those enjoying roaring private practice, also refuse to serve anywhere outside the capital and other cities. Somehow, the more equal among them manage to stay in the capital or their choice duty stations year after year. Who does not know that a small fraction of their outlandish income exchange hands to do the trick. How then the teachers involved in coaching business manage to stay in the same schools for years together when the rule allows them to serve at an institution for three years only? The practice is not unlikely to be any different from the physicians' ploy.

The Ministry of Education finalised the draft Education Act in September and it was supposed to be submitted to the cabinet for approval. It took long six years for finalising the draft since the formation of a committee for the purpose. By this time the ministry has given in to vacillation over the banning of private tuition, coaching, note, guide, practice and support books. After it had decided on banning these out-of-school teaching and supporting materials beyond education board-approved books, it backtracked suddenly and accommodated provision for continuing with the practices and guide materials in some forms or other. It was then in the face of vehement opposition from educationists the ministry came up with the firm decision to completely ban both forms of extra care outside classroom. But can it be implemented?

While the draft Education Act is awaiting cabinet approval, the ACC recommendation for transferring more than 500 teachers of different government schools in the capital certainly gives a positive message. All will now be waiting to see how the authorities respond. Private coaching on a commercial level is not confined only to the capital city, it has spread to other large cities, district towns and upazilas. With the incentive for scoring the magic grade point average (GPA)-5 even villages are trying to copy the urban practice with whatever teaching resources they have. But Dhaka city is the hub where the best teachers from all corners of the country pour in to try their luck. Also, here the majority of parents can afford private coaching at several coaching centres and/or private tutors at home, astronomical costs notwithstanding. The lure of lucre thus draws teachers who could not or did not make it to service at government educational institutions to the city. They get absorbed either in the reputed private schools and colleges or independently operate coaching centres --sometimes a network of those. There lies the mystery of prolific growth of commercial coaching business.

The crucial point now is if the roaring coaching business can be banned by making laws. The issue needs to be analysed from a practical perspective. Can anything with high demand be contained by law? Perhaps not. The bane of question leak in different public examinations and recruitment tests could not be eliminated as yet. What matters is making private coaching redundant. Ideally, lessons in classrooms for students should be enough for mastering the subjects and preparing for examinations. The way reputed schools in the city enrol students is an indication of the leading crop of students they get. So there should not be any reason for such students to grasp the subjects taught in schools provided that their teachers teach seriously. In urban centres, teachers are mostly qualified enough and they should impart lessons capably and skilfully. Unfortunately, this is not the case. At times teachers cannot be blamed too for it becomes impossible to do justice to teaching when a class is crowded with 60-70 students. However much a teacher can be sincere, it is impossible for him/her to take care of the backbenchers. There are always a few backbenchers no matter how rigorous the admission process is. Under close supervision as maintained in cadet colleges with tolerable teacher/student ratio, though, this weakness is mostly made up.

Now the vast rural areas are not fortunate to have the academic atmosphere of cadet colleges or the reputed educational institutions of Dhaka City. There the teaching staff is weak, so much that the majority of them cannot even set structured or popularly known creative questions for school examinations. Actually the problem began with the introduction of this particular type of questions without preparing teachers. The authorities had to invent some way of stamping their mark of a phenomenal leap forward in pass rates and exam scores. These they surely achieved by introducing MCQ (multiple choice questions). This can be a procedure at reality shows such as Kaun Bonega Krorepati, where guess answers can earn a participant an astonishing amount, but not in important public examinations. Taken by surprise, examinees at the secondary and higher secondary levels in great numbers could not score lucrative GPA-5 in the initial years but then began the bonanza, like gold rush, of GPA-5 or the ultimate score unofficially called golden GPA.

That it was a political decision in favour of 'the more the better' is evident from the fact that examiners even got reprimanded if they did not generously checked exam papers and distributed favour in the form of marks. What happens if the instructions are withdrawn or reversed is reflected in the results of the latest SSC and HSC examinations. Have not the people at the helms of education affairs experimented too much on innocent students without really standardising education at the secondary and higher secondary levels? By no means structured questions can bring out the best of the cognitive faculty students are gifted with if teachers do not guide them in developing their appreciation for subjects. Thus communicative English fails to deliver with both teachers and students shying away from conversation. Students need to develop their independent intellection, analytical power and love for subjects. Text books not written in the most lucid and best of forms can hardly appeal to students. If teachers are of exceptional calibre, they can make the subjects appealing to their students. This happens in rare cases.

Today education and excellent results are dependent on question banks and their solution. In a situation, doing away with the need for private coaching and note or guide books is remote. Had there been no or little demand in an atmosphere of effective classroom teaching for extra care outside school, the roaring coaching business would have driven its operators out of business. The challenge is to create such an ambience for education. Teachers cannot be expected to remain poor when other professionals have means of extra income undisturbed. As long as sobriety fails to prevail over unhealthy competition for money spinning in society, lucre will say the last word on purchasing education.

The writer is Associate Editor of The Financial Express.

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