Improving the schools, not shutting them down
Tuesday, 17 June 2008
THE government usually stops monthly payment order (MPO) of the schools, which fail to perform up to the expected results in school final examinations. This strategy was taken up to create a pressure on the school managements to maintain a minimum standard of education. This policy is certainly appreciable.
So in the upcoming fiscal budget, many schools are likely to be dropped from the government list and many would be added. There is no contradiction in this move viewed from the government policy.
In reality, these schools usually fail to perform because of shortage of teachers, educational equipment, poor performance of the school management committees, less qualified teachers etc. At the same time, the country does not have enough schools to enrol all the school-age children. Our teacher-student ratio is among the highest in developing countries. So if the government's move forces these schools to close down, the country can't attain the millennium development goal(MDG) to ensure education for all by 2015.
In such a situation, the government may adopt another mechanism to remove the shortcomings of these schools. It can make it mandatory to transfer the schoolteachers, reorganise the management committees or make creative rules so that the performance of these schools improves.
Naimur Rahman
Satmasjid road,
Dhaka
So in the upcoming fiscal budget, many schools are likely to be dropped from the government list and many would be added. There is no contradiction in this move viewed from the government policy.
In reality, these schools usually fail to perform because of shortage of teachers, educational equipment, poor performance of the school management committees, less qualified teachers etc. At the same time, the country does not have enough schools to enrol all the school-age children. Our teacher-student ratio is among the highest in developing countries. So if the government's move forces these schools to close down, the country can't attain the millennium development goal(MDG) to ensure education for all by 2015.
In such a situation, the government may adopt another mechanism to remove the shortcomings of these schools. It can make it mandatory to transfer the schoolteachers, reorganise the management committees or make creative rules so that the performance of these schools improves.
Naimur Rahman
Satmasjid road,
Dhaka