Education: The vision must be mature and humanistic
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Nerun Yakub
The cabinet last Monday finally put its stamp of approval on the much talked about Draft Education Policy, with the word 'secular' removed from its expression of intent, as it were, and substituted by 'non-communal consciousness', supposedly to appease religion-based political groups as well as keeping close to the language of the constitution. The draft policy has been thrashed around in some 49 seminars over the past year, we are told, and now awaits the Jatiya Sangsad. [Curiously, some people who are otherwise quite reasonable, are often found equating 'secularism' with 'atheism,' and on the opposite extreme, 'religiosity/peity' ends up as a synonym for 'obscurantism !']
The synopsis of the policy says it means to implement a unified curriculum for general, madrasa and vocational education up to class XII, making religious and moral education compulsory for all faiths. The government's position on madrasa education is clear enough. Rather than undermining its importance, the government intends to 'upgrade it and make it more relevant to real life,' as the Education Minister has been heard saying so many times before.
It may very much be a political ploy, but the fact remains that the madrasa system, or systems, are an undeniable part of Bangladesh's socio-economic and religio-political reality and the sooner we come to terms with this the better for the nation.
Hundreds of thousands of young people, predominantly from the lower income groups, and orphans and destitutes among them, are attracted to the-food-and-board providing madrasas, with their rather perfunctory, if not anachronistic, education. But given the fact that governments alone have never been able to provide for all school-age children, the madrasa system, if reasonably upgraded, could actually be used to advantage. After all, these institutions function by default, as do the proliferation of NGO schools of all hues and shades. Given the fact that the gap between what secular governments have been proclaiming about universal education ---- and the reality on the ground, it makes no sense to go on blaming poor quality madrasas and schools instead of facilitating and streamlining their 'educational' activities to fit the 21st century world.
The unified curriculum would hopefully do away with the alienation that students from certain institutions feel vis-à-vis mainstream 'modern' schooling. But to fault religious education alone with creating a feeling of 'otherness' would be wrong. Many so-called secular mainstream schools have been found to be far from 'enlightened' and do contribute to damaging schisms in society.
Decision makers cannot go on ignoring the hard realities on the ground --- the nature of the land , the diverse socio-economic conditions of the people. These are hardly conducive to designing a uniform education system for all. But with a mature and humanistic vision of what constitutes 'human resource development' it would be quite possible to remove moronic content and replace it with intellectually and ethically satisfying versions, wherever needed.
The synopsis made available to the media let it be known that the UK-based 'Ordinary' level school examination would be counted as equivalent to SSC, and the 'Advanced' level as equal to our HSC ! The luminaries who have suggested this absurd equation obviously have no idea about the standard of the textbooks used for O and A level courses. Would they kindly open one or two prescribed texts to see for themselves how poorly our own national text books fare ? As for a compulsory Bangla course for O&A level examinees, the system does offer good Bangla courses, both 'easy' and 'advanced', and students do have to take one, at least at the O level, which is ordinarily in Class X. Until such time when world class school curriculum and teaching will be home grown, let us not disturb the UK-based system.
Instead of this unnecessary green eye on O&A level schools, the policy framers should rather have attended to the proliferation of so-called 'English medium National curriculum' schools that teach from texts that are very poor quality translations in English ! Students are even obliged to pay more for the opportunity to learn their lessons from these shoddy translations ! And these schools have been mushrooming in every nook and corner and are managed by socio-economically well-established people, so established that none dare questions their intent.
The entire educational sector is indeed fraught with all kinds of discrepancies. It is not really a question of secular versus religious education or English versus Bangla medium. It is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual poverty of those in the driving seat, it is a reflection of the gross socio-economic inequities and inequalities that have been allowed to prevail in the land too long. And all this have been eating into the vitals of this nation.
To break free of this malaise, a sustained and consistent educational philosophy ---- that is inclusive rather than divisive ---- has to take root. It is an imperative, if we are to bring all the streams of education currently functioning in the country, under a reasonably uniform system, comparable to the best in the region.
This does not mean unnecessary bureaucratic meddling but sensible, gradual, participatory upgrading of school management, the quality and status of teachers, relevant curriculum and meaningful methods of teaching. If we invested now in the best minds and materials, to design and teach a world-class national curriculum to all, we could, perhaps in a few generations' time, have a less divisive socio-political culture, and grow to be intellectually and spiritually more honest.
The cabinet last Monday finally put its stamp of approval on the much talked about Draft Education Policy, with the word 'secular' removed from its expression of intent, as it were, and substituted by 'non-communal consciousness', supposedly to appease religion-based political groups as well as keeping close to the language of the constitution. The draft policy has been thrashed around in some 49 seminars over the past year, we are told, and now awaits the Jatiya Sangsad. [Curiously, some people who are otherwise quite reasonable, are often found equating 'secularism' with 'atheism,' and on the opposite extreme, 'religiosity/peity' ends up as a synonym for 'obscurantism !']
The synopsis of the policy says it means to implement a unified curriculum for general, madrasa and vocational education up to class XII, making religious and moral education compulsory for all faiths. The government's position on madrasa education is clear enough. Rather than undermining its importance, the government intends to 'upgrade it and make it more relevant to real life,' as the Education Minister has been heard saying so many times before.
It may very much be a political ploy, but the fact remains that the madrasa system, or systems, are an undeniable part of Bangladesh's socio-economic and religio-political reality and the sooner we come to terms with this the better for the nation.
Hundreds of thousands of young people, predominantly from the lower income groups, and orphans and destitutes among them, are attracted to the-food-and-board providing madrasas, with their rather perfunctory, if not anachronistic, education. But given the fact that governments alone have never been able to provide for all school-age children, the madrasa system, if reasonably upgraded, could actually be used to advantage. After all, these institutions function by default, as do the proliferation of NGO schools of all hues and shades. Given the fact that the gap between what secular governments have been proclaiming about universal education ---- and the reality on the ground, it makes no sense to go on blaming poor quality madrasas and schools instead of facilitating and streamlining their 'educational' activities to fit the 21st century world.
The unified curriculum would hopefully do away with the alienation that students from certain institutions feel vis-à-vis mainstream 'modern' schooling. But to fault religious education alone with creating a feeling of 'otherness' would be wrong. Many so-called secular mainstream schools have been found to be far from 'enlightened' and do contribute to damaging schisms in society.
Decision makers cannot go on ignoring the hard realities on the ground --- the nature of the land , the diverse socio-economic conditions of the people. These are hardly conducive to designing a uniform education system for all. But with a mature and humanistic vision of what constitutes 'human resource development' it would be quite possible to remove moronic content and replace it with intellectually and ethically satisfying versions, wherever needed.
The synopsis made available to the media let it be known that the UK-based 'Ordinary' level school examination would be counted as equivalent to SSC, and the 'Advanced' level as equal to our HSC ! The luminaries who have suggested this absurd equation obviously have no idea about the standard of the textbooks used for O and A level courses. Would they kindly open one or two prescribed texts to see for themselves how poorly our own national text books fare ? As for a compulsory Bangla course for O&A level examinees, the system does offer good Bangla courses, both 'easy' and 'advanced', and students do have to take one, at least at the O level, which is ordinarily in Class X. Until such time when world class school curriculum and teaching will be home grown, let us not disturb the UK-based system.
Instead of this unnecessary green eye on O&A level schools, the policy framers should rather have attended to the proliferation of so-called 'English medium National curriculum' schools that teach from texts that are very poor quality translations in English ! Students are even obliged to pay more for the opportunity to learn their lessons from these shoddy translations ! And these schools have been mushrooming in every nook and corner and are managed by socio-economically well-established people, so established that none dare questions their intent.
The entire educational sector is indeed fraught with all kinds of discrepancies. It is not really a question of secular versus religious education or English versus Bangla medium. It is a reflection of the intellectual and spiritual poverty of those in the driving seat, it is a reflection of the gross socio-economic inequities and inequalities that have been allowed to prevail in the land too long. And all this have been eating into the vitals of this nation.
To break free of this malaise, a sustained and consistent educational philosophy ---- that is inclusive rather than divisive ---- has to take root. It is an imperative, if we are to bring all the streams of education currently functioning in the country, under a reasonably uniform system, comparable to the best in the region.
This does not mean unnecessary bureaucratic meddling but sensible, gradual, participatory upgrading of school management, the quality and status of teachers, relevant curriculum and meaningful methods of teaching. If we invested now in the best minds and materials, to design and teach a world-class national curriculum to all, we could, perhaps in a few generations' time, have a less divisive socio-political culture, and grow to be intellectually and spiritually more honest.