Primary education

THE primary education in the country has been in more intense public discussion for the last few months, than before. The drop-out rate is high although enrollment is also very high because of many incentives that are provided to the families who send their children to schools. brWhat we read about the state of primary schools across the country is their very poor quality, in terms of service delivery and operations. Particularly the schools lack quality teachers, the teachers themselves do not concentrate themselves in teaching activities. Rather, they remain busy with other non-educational matters. Teachers are always expected to work with sincerity but the trust that the nation has reposed in them is hardly honoured by them, particularly with any reasonable sense of accompanied by accountability. brThere is also lack of monitoring by the concerned departments. The primary education system, thus, badly suffers because of mismanagement in the schools. But there are administrative laxities, too. Textbooks are not supplied on time and half of the textbooks are recycled ones, with being pages torn away and exercises, filled in. Some students receive revised textbooks and some others, unrevised ones in the same class. This year the English textbooks did not reach those students even two months after the start of the school-year. And when new textbooks are introduced, teachers do not get teachers' manual on time.brIn this situation, it is also difficult to expect good functioning of the schools. These limitations of primary educational institutions have been persisting for long. Total school hours in a day and the total school days in a year in our country are the lowest among the neighbouring countries. There are too many holidays and vacations that do need to be curtailed and school timing should be lengthened. We need a total care system for our primary education because we know that a strong boost for primary education will ultimately boost the entire education system. brbrAmeena KhanbrGulshan-1, Dhaka br