To say it is incredulous is an understatement. But the news carried in a contemporary based on its reporter's visit to the spot and queries from all concerned cannot lie. The contention of the report is that peon (office bearer), computer operator and even sweeper---all act as teachers! And this is not a run-of-the-mill school located in a remote corner of the country. Once the number one school in the pre-liberation period, the Government Laboratory School in Dhaka boasted an enviable distinction of producing unrivalled results in Secondary School Certificate examinations.
Even for the first few years in the post-liberation Bangladesh, it maintained its high standard and continued to excel in the first public examinations.
Then the school saw a gradual decline and now it is in a mess. What emerges as the main problem is the crisis of teachers. Right now the school has no headmaster because the one who held the post has been on post-retirement leave from October 30 last. No one has been appointed in his place. But this does not explain why sweepers and office-bearers have to replace teachers in classes. About 3,000 students with 2,400 of them in the school section and the rest in the college section study there. But there are only 46 teachers. Teachers are recruited for the secondary section, not for the primary section.
The problem arises there. Some teachers jokingly commented that while teaching at the primary level, they have lost their identity as teachers of the secondary level. If some teachers are sick or on leave, there is no replacement, admits the acting headmaster. It is in such emergencies, he explains, even the most unlikely member of staff is sent to classes to maintain as much discipline as possible. The idea is that the presence of some elderly persons in classes will refrain students from engaging in rowdiness. This is understandable.
But then there are no teachers specially assigned to the college duty. The 46-strong staff has to cover the college teaching. At the college level, some teachers are hired, not recruited, at times to impart lessons. To the question how their remuneration is paid, the acting headmaster replied that they somehow manage it. This is unwarranted on the one hand, mysterious on the other. Why should the school or for that matter college authority be given this onerous job of managing somehow. Is education at the college level so cheap and simple that a government college has to hire teachers? Then where from they are recruited to teach at class XI and XII may matter significantly.
Now the question is, if such extempore measures are at all permissible in a reputed educational institution. The school may lose much of its past glory but it still maintains a reasonable standard and draws a huge number of applicants for admission to it. It is a hectic environment when teachers have to teach at three stages. The introduction of the primary branch is to blame for the mess the entire institution is now in. There were attempts several times in the past to close down the primary branch. But political pressure and expediency understandably did not allow this to happen.
In a situation like this, the teachers there must be tanked for doing their duties. It is the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education that should have taken up the issue for solution long ago. There is no point allowing the mess getting messier. Had the primary section been bifurcated under the Directorate of Primary Education, the situation would not come to this pass. A complicated management and teaching system there has been responsible for the Govt Laboratory School's decline. It must not be allowed to dip further down.
nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com