The education sector in Bangladesh had been riding out the headwinds of the coronavirus pandemic when it encountered another setback as devastating floods swept through the country's northern region in 2022. Under these circumstances, students across the country and the education authorities face an uphill task to make up for the unprecedented learning deficit in the upcoming year, reports bdnews24.com
After three whirlwind years precipitated by the pandemic, officials now hope to resume academic classes in full swing in 2023 in a bid to steady the ship and restore a semblance of normality to the education system.
However, further challenges lie ahead as the authorities look to implement a new education curriculum, find ways to thwart question paper leaks and address the complications in printing free textbooks for students in 2023.
Looking ahead, experts believe teachers and education administrators must be more active after the travails of the last three years. Teachers need to be trained further with a focus on overcoming the gap in learning for students, they said.
Students were outside the classroom for a long time during the pandemic. The government had to shut down educational institutions early in 2022 amid a rapid surge in COVID-19 cases.
Later in May and June of the same year, students in the northeast were hit hard by severe flooding. More than 5,000 educational institutions were closed, impacting at least 600,000 secondary pupils.
The secondary and higher secondary certificate exams were eventually held seven months behind the usual schedule due to a combination of floods and the pandemic. In an effort to cope with the situation, the authorities scaled down the syllabus, the number of subjects, and the allocation of marks for the exams.
As students lost their textbooks and other educational materials in the floods, the government had to provide them again before they sat for the SSC exams. The SSC exams were held on September 15 instead of June 19.
Students in the Sylhet region suffered the most. Among all nine education boards, the Sylhet Board of Education fell behind on the pass rate and the number of students with GPA-5.
Education officials are optimistic about making up the lost ground through undisrupted in-person learning going forward.
Arun Chandra Pal, the exam controller of the Sylhet Board of Education, hopes to put the woes of the pandemic and floods behind in the new year.
"We suffered a lot. The students were under tremendous mental pressure. We're trying to get back the students who dropped out of schools," he said.
"We want to ensure 100 per cent attendance by students in the upcoming year. Our education officers in the districts and upazilas are working on it while the administration is cooperating with us as much as possible."
The Ministry of Education has taken up various initiatives to bring stability to the education system after it was upended by the pandemic.
"The SSC exams in 2023 will be held at the end of April. As students could not attend their classes properly in 2021 and 2022 due to the pandemic, the SSC exams in 2023 will be held on an abridged syllabus," said Tapan Kumar Sarkar, president of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Sub-committee.
Academic classes will resume in full swing in January to allow the authorities to set the 2024 SSC exams on the complete syllabus, he added.
After a long pause, students spent a lot of time in the classroom last year which helped alleviate some of their mental stress and prepared them to be more active in the upcoming year, according to experts.
It would be tough to address the learning gap of the students, said
But Fahima Khatun, former director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, acknowledges the inherent challenges in addressing the learning gap. "Ninth graders can make up any gaps in their education in grade ten, but that's not possible for students in other grades. Therefore, we should also focus on the key learning issues that students missed out on last year alongside whatever is planned for the next year."
Overcoming the learning gap caused by the pandemic will be a great challenge for both students and teachers, according to MA Mannan, former chairman of the University Grants Commission.
"This is because there are no shortcuts in education. The students' learning process was hampered by the coronavirus pandemic and the floods and many of them are graduating to the next level with some deficiencies. Therefore, we must ensure that those gaps are filled. Those responsible for academic administration, in particular, should look after it. But teachers should place the utmost emphasis on this issue. Otherwise, this deficiency can't be addressed."
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