Consequences of segmentation in education
Thursday, 13 March 2008
Enayet Rasul
WHAT the Chief Adviser (CA) has drawn attention to a conference on education recently, merits the urgent attention of policy planners specially in the realm of education. The CA observed that the country would have to overcome segmentation and division in the education system at secondary and primary levels that create a divided society. He recommended a set of core knowledge and competencies to be acquired by 'all' students along with choices for additional or complementary education. In other words, he advocated for a synthesis in education so that pupils in different branches are all required to be well versed in certain subjects that would pave the way to their becoming human resources for the benefit of the country and the economy.
We have a rather skewed system of education at primary and secondary levels that impact differently on the pupils and create varying degrees of competence and philosophies of life. The three prevailing different streams of education at these levels include generally the Bengali medium schools, the English medium schools and the madrashas. Most of the Bengali medium schools are considered as poorly run by many guardians who are too keen to provide the best or high quality education to their children. This leads to the scramble among them to put their children in English medium schools. But most of these schools are also not up to the mark though this truth is not realised by far too many guardians. They take big fees and impress the gullible guardians with posh outer appearances and apparently smart looking teachers. But in the crucial area of imparting good education of international standard, most of these institutions are found to be lacking seriously. However, most of the guardians fail to see through these inadequacies and remain content with a smug sense of satisfaction that their children are getting superior education.
Then, there is the madrasha education. This system of education puts emphasis on religious studies to the relative exclusion of the physical sciences and other subjects that help in the creation of human resources. Besides, the quality of teaching at the madrasha level is also considered as rather poor. Furthermore, the madrasha pupils are generally found steeped in religious thoughts and feel that they are a class apart from the ones who study in the mainstream education systems. The madrashas, these days, are also allegedly breeding grounds of jihadis or extremist Islamists. Thus, many people tend to believe that instead of helping social stability and cohesion, this stream of education for its excessive emphasis on religion and ideology, ends up by producing young people who are alienated from the mainstream population.
The English medium schools tend to produce elitist behaviour among pupils. They are often found unfamiliar with conditions in their own country but more knowledgeable about other countries. The Bengali medium schools with their relative lack of neglect of the English language and poor quality of teaching are not helping the creation of human resources of the sort that the country requires. The madrasha system's output is mainly the creation of prayer leaders that hardly fit into any objective of creating resourceful persons to undertake diverse forms of economic activities.
Thus, it is necessary to bring about synthesis in the three separate systems of education as well as to improve the quality of education in each system. Any reformative actions in the sphere of education ought to address this need of synthesis and quality at the primary and secondary levels of education.
WHAT the Chief Adviser (CA) has drawn attention to a conference on education recently, merits the urgent attention of policy planners specially in the realm of education. The CA observed that the country would have to overcome segmentation and division in the education system at secondary and primary levels that create a divided society. He recommended a set of core knowledge and competencies to be acquired by 'all' students along with choices for additional or complementary education. In other words, he advocated for a synthesis in education so that pupils in different branches are all required to be well versed in certain subjects that would pave the way to their becoming human resources for the benefit of the country and the economy.
We have a rather skewed system of education at primary and secondary levels that impact differently on the pupils and create varying degrees of competence and philosophies of life. The three prevailing different streams of education at these levels include generally the Bengali medium schools, the English medium schools and the madrashas. Most of the Bengali medium schools are considered as poorly run by many guardians who are too keen to provide the best or high quality education to their children. This leads to the scramble among them to put their children in English medium schools. But most of these schools are also not up to the mark though this truth is not realised by far too many guardians. They take big fees and impress the gullible guardians with posh outer appearances and apparently smart looking teachers. But in the crucial area of imparting good education of international standard, most of these institutions are found to be lacking seriously. However, most of the guardians fail to see through these inadequacies and remain content with a smug sense of satisfaction that their children are getting superior education.
Then, there is the madrasha education. This system of education puts emphasis on religious studies to the relative exclusion of the physical sciences and other subjects that help in the creation of human resources. Besides, the quality of teaching at the madrasha level is also considered as rather poor. Furthermore, the madrasha pupils are generally found steeped in religious thoughts and feel that they are a class apart from the ones who study in the mainstream education systems. The madrashas, these days, are also allegedly breeding grounds of jihadis or extremist Islamists. Thus, many people tend to believe that instead of helping social stability and cohesion, this stream of education for its excessive emphasis on religion and ideology, ends up by producing young people who are alienated from the mainstream population.
The English medium schools tend to produce elitist behaviour among pupils. They are often found unfamiliar with conditions in their own country but more knowledgeable about other countries. The Bengali medium schools with their relative lack of neglect of the English language and poor quality of teaching are not helping the creation of human resources of the sort that the country requires. The madrasha system's output is mainly the creation of prayer leaders that hardly fit into any objective of creating resourceful persons to undertake diverse forms of economic activities.
Thus, it is necessary to bring about synthesis in the three separate systems of education as well as to improve the quality of education in each system. Any reformative actions in the sphere of education ought to address this need of synthesis and quality at the primary and secondary levels of education.