Ideally, nothing could be more welcome than saying a firm 'no' to private tuition or coaching. Only more so, because this all-cure educational solution has seen a cancerous growth in the country. The proliferation of this trade in education has been so encompassing that it has spread its tentacles even in remote villages. If such organisations have developed into coaching firms in towns and cities, in villages a band of professional tutors have also come up to meet the growing demand for tutorial need of students there. Not that many of those tutors are well versed with the newly introduced system of teaching and appreciation of structured questions popularly known as creative method of education.
The agile education ministry is busy introducing one after another method or procedure. At times the experimentation proves very costly for examinees of a particular year or two. What happened to the first two batches of examinees of SSC and HSC immediately after the introduction of the grading (grade point average or GPA) system is a stark example. Then the same was the case with the early batches of examinees on introduction of structured question papers for evaluation of their merit. Addition of a subject on information, communication and technology (ICT) for students at the secondary and higher secondary levels from this year's examination without enough preparation is likely to hurt many students, particularly those from village schools and colleges, in terms of performance.
Now the ministry is bent on enacting a law stipulating punishment and fine for teachers if they do not abide by the proposed Education Act 2016. There are provisions for six months' jail and a fine of up to Tk 200,000 for violation of the law. Publishers of note or guidebooks too will be meted out similar punishment because such exercises are unlawful. To go by reports, opinions sought in favour or against it with further comments have mostly endorsed the proposed law.
It is not yet clear when the ministry likes to enforce the law. In 2012, the ministry sent directives to educational institutions with the aim of curbing unauthorised coaching there. A cap was imposed on private coaching under which a teacher was allowed to impart coaching to 10 students a day at the maximum and none of those students would be from where s/he teaches. Also, the teacher had to obtain a no objection certificate (NOC) from the head of the institution.
Had this been complied with, it surely would have reflected most tellingly on the results of students. Now if the ministry thinks the law can be enforced soon, most likely it is unknowingly inviting a major disaster in the most important public examinations. No question about the intention but mere good intention is not enough. Abolishing a system that has developed because the introduction of the systems was premature -there was hardly any groundwork -needs arduous and painstaking preparation.
Admittedly, here is a result-oriented academic pursuit. Unless students obtain the highest grade, they stand no chance even for submission of their application for select higher education. Questions -structured or non-structured -should not come to the fore. The system of education has to be capable of authentically evaluate students' merits. The grading system has been abused enough by not keeping ready the required set-up. Complaints that even many teachers are hardly capable of understanding the creative system and therefore cannot set questions on their own are not for nothing.
What the ministry has been doing is nothing short of putting the cart before the horse. For a long time, the method of education has gone awry. Now the accumulated aberration cannot be righted by a single stroke. The majority of teachers now teaching at schools and college levels will be unable to impart lessons good enough for doing away with private tuition. Also the teacher-student ratio now reported to be at 1:60 in most reputed institutions is an indication that the job is humanly impossible.
There is no magic wand even for the brightest among teachers to do justice to lessons in a crowded class where there are back-benchers who lag behind for reasons understandable. How will these laggards perform in examinations should be taken into account. If there is no scope for copying in examination halls -which has been more or less been ensured now -these laggards will not pass and there will be a drastic decline in the percentage of pass at the SSC and HSC levels. Here is a prospect the government will not savour very much.
Now that the ministry has set its eyes on correcting the malaise in the system, it has to proceed step by step. First, it has to mind the recruitment of teachers. Bright, young teachers will be recruited without any scope for political consideration or the much maligned donation system. Even if required, unfit and unqualified teachers will have to be sent to early retirement in the interest of making room for the highly qualified ones. Also training for teachers will have to be thorough and extensive so that they know their subject well.
The next important criterion is to award a pay package commensurate with their qualification and expertise. Those who think that teachers now get a reasonable salary are judging the profession from a wrong perspective. In fact, highly qualified teachers are the benchmark and they deserve not just double but even three times the emoluments they draw now. Making arrangement for such teachers in a few select schools will not do. When the majority of schools boast such teachers can the abolition of private coaching be practicable and successful. Otherwise, punishing teachers with jail sentence and fines sounds most degrading for the profession as well as the nation.
Last but not least, the commercial coaching centres that have seen mushrooming growth like business firms can immediately be closed down under the law.
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