Education has gained but still a long way to go

In the preamble of the National Education Policy 2010, its overall objective has been summed up succinctly.  The objective is to create a knowledge-based society that draws its strength from moral values and advanced science and technological knowledge.  The nation's guiding principles, such value system, culture and tradition would be backed up by the spirit of the Liberation War. So far so good. But the endemic problem is too entrenched to be rooted out without addressing the fundamental defects in the education system.
True, education in some areas has gone through some radical reform and students are reaping its benefits. Gone are the days when primary final examinations were taken casually by a section of students and their guardians. Taking admission to class VI without scoring enough qualification marks in the final examinations of class V was near routine. Thus the educational base of the majority of students at this level left much to be wanting. This culture of concessionary pass or admission was carried forward at the level of class IX and X when students did not qualify in school tests held prior to sending them for Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations. Such incidents are rare today. Schools in villages only take chances of sending such unqualified candidates at their own risks.
What emerges from this changed motive is that all have become alive to the new realities that without obtaining the bare minimum marks, no student stands the chance for appearing at the most important public examination. Albeit somewhat controversial, the introduction of the two more public examinations for class V and class VIII has compelled both guardians and students to take studies in lower classes quite seriously. Sure enough, given the socio-economic realities here, without such a compulsion it would be impossible to suddenly serve the cause of achieving universal literacy and raising the quality of education at the same time. There are also pressures from the education ministry on the educational institutions to prove themselves that they are eligible for the government grants which constitute the bulk of teachers' salaries in the majority of village schools.
While the move in this direction has proved very effective, the same cannot be said about other allied areas. In fact, the juggernaut of malformed education needed a major surgery, not just a cosmetic one. But it was not to be. The country has three streams of education -each one poles apart from the other. It is the general Bangla-medium education that could be subjected to the latest greatly required, if not radical, review. But both the English medium madrasha education has been left out of its ambit. In the absence of enough determination, manpower, implements and other required facilities, English medium students pursue an alien education devoid of an anchorage to the country's history, culture and tradition. If their orientation is far removed from the patriotic relationship with their motherland, the madrasha-educated students are brainwashed by religious fundamentalism in the absence of a forward-looking curriculum.
Motivated politics has derailed the government initiatives to reform the education as imparted by the Quomi madrashas in the country. The government initiative could prove effective enough at dismantling the monopolised bastion that has limited the scope and opportunities of madrasha education in the country. In Paschimbango madrasha education has been reformed with startling results. So modern and advanced this stream of education is there that even students from the Hindu community now study in madrashas. All because the education they receive there is good enough to open doors to higher education in medical science, engineering and any other discipline. Here the government had to back out in the face of threat from vested interest quarters. This is unfortunate.
Selective education depending on economic status of certain segments of society is bad itself. When one of the streams is monopolised by motivated quarters in an effort to use it as a means to propagating dogmas or religious extremism, society is bound to get divided into hostile groups. Only liberal, scientific and secular education alone can be a recipe for inculcating the ideals of equality of man, democratic values and love for the land. Recent political developments have exposed the weakness in the country's education system. Nowhere can people get so fiendishly deviated from the basic human norms to commit acts of sabotage or arson targeting their compatriots unless there is a tribal war like one between the Hutus and Tutsis. Love for the country does not necessarily mean just an emotional attachment for the soil; rather it consists of fellow feeling and the readiness to defend all the basic human rights and principles.
Proper education teaches one to be a good man in the first place. There is no way this can be said about the educational products of today, less so about those coming out from one particular stream of education. Education ought to develop in students highly valued human qualities rather than the bestial ones. The preamble of the National Education Policy set its sight on the most relevant points. How far its detailed plan was capable of achieving is however a different issue. Yet by all accounts, it was a good beginning. A policy like this, the formulators argue convincingly, should be subjected to changes in order to fine-tune it whenever necessary. This is a demonstration of the openness of mind on the part of the formulators. There is a need for giving the policy to spread its roots so that the varied streams of education could serve the same purpose keeping their especial identities intact.
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The writer is Associate Editor of the FE.