Towards a time-worthy quality education?
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Nerun Yakub
A 16-member committee was named in the first week of April, which is to meet soon to work out a 'time-worthy quality education policy' within the next three months. At least two of the professors were heard recently at the DU Arts Faculty Teachers' lounge, telling each other that they had seen their names in the newspapers. Does it imply that these good people had not been consulted prior to the education ministry's decision to put them on the committee ? Such adhocism ought to be avoided in something as crucial as a nation's education, which at this point in time, presents one of the most frustrating situations for Bangladesh's thinkers.
Ever since this country came into being there have been no dearth of education-development activities, ostensibly to upgrade content and teaching methodolgies as well as teacher-quality at primary, secondary and higher-secondary levels. Yet, over the past decades virtually nothing worthwhile has resulted from all the fuss and funds spent on the pretext of improving these fundamental inputs.
Now the buzzword is 'digital Bangladesh.' With that in mind, the education ministry declared the other day that IT would be a core course from class nine at least. The merit of this can hardly be underestimated, for an IT- savvy human resource no doubt would be better equipped to meet current global challenges. But does it not have to be knowledge-based in the first place, with 'real education' ? One educator succinctly says, the ultimate purpose of education is to 'learn to think and think to learn.' Unfortunately, this fundamental principle is absent in most of Bangladesh's educational institutions from the primary upwards. One might claim that the very foundations of mass mediocrity are laid early on due to widespread rote learning practices. Such a system would obviously yield nothing better than the current crop of unthinking drifters with meaningless 'certificates'. The tiny minority of boys and girls who achieve brilliant heights do so because of socio-economic privileges while the vast majority are hard put to sell either their brain or their brawn.
But let us not forget that one can learn IT mechanically and yet remain incapable of dealing with the challenges in a highly competitive knowledge-based world. It is important therefore that the government's focus is on improving the grey cells of both the teachers and the taught, early on, not just on the purchase of high-tech gadgets that few would be adept enough to use optimally. The digital Bangladesh slogan therefore should focus not on procuring hardware alone but, more importantly, on developing highly-skilled, value-added brainpower that would be marketable at home and throughout the world. On the optimist tone, the 'time-worthy quality education' initiative, if pursued consistently and earnestly from the very basic level, might take our overwhelmingly young population well on its way to becoming competitive, provided investment in education yielded what the 1990 World Conference on Education for All set out to accomplish.
It called for universal quality education, with a particular focus on the poorest citizens, and improved dissemination of the knowledge, skills and values required for better living and sustainable development. This vision of educational quality extends to issues of gender equality and equity, health and nutrition, parental and community involvement and the management of the education system itself. Such an approach calls for more perceptive curricula and excellent teacher-input, so that the very process of learning becomes a preparation for life. This, needless to say, is a tall order for Bangladesh's conventional system, which is mostly rigid and insensitive.
It may be mentioned here that the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which became binding international law the following year, and which Bangladesh has also ratified, elevates the educational 'needs' of children into their 'rights', as these are essential both to children's development and to social progress. Thus, Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention require countries to provide free, compulsory, quality basic schooling for all , without which the practice of democratic citizenship is bound to remain elusive.
People being the biggest natural resource, the most rational approach to true development would be to invest our minds, money and time in it ------ not in five year political terms, but a five hundred visionary one, for, from the perspective of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, education encompasses not only children's cognitive needs but also their physical, social, emotional, moral and spiritual development. In other words, it calls for nothing less than a revolution.
Many Asian countries, with their focus on human resource development, have much to boast about in the field of education, achieving globally recognised standards and moving ahead in a fast changing 21st century, a century marked by mind-boggling advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, informatics, neurosciences and what not. China, for example, has been one of the fastest. Over the past decade or so China's spending on colleges and universities has reportedly jumped tenfold,with research and technology in many spheres 'outshining anything in the United States.'
Bangladesh can learn from the experiences of countries in the region if it really means to nurture knowledge-based education. First and foremost, it has to arrest the low quality of education at the primary and secondary levels, focussing on both the general and madrasha streams and rationalising their contents and methods of instruction and evaluation. They must be thoroughly overhauled, and the teachers themselves subjected to rigorous training to enhance their capacities. If not, Bangladesh's higher-education-aspirants would continue to lag behind, except a few who have a head start in better quality elitist institutions.
Although there are widely differing opinions in Bangladesh regarding investment in higher education vis a vis primary, the fact remains that many developing countries have forged ahead in the past half century, giving equal importance to higher education, as well as research and development. China, Taiwan, South Korea and even India's gains in economic power are attributed to their high quality higher education, basic research and development, together with vocational and managerial training, and various opportunities for continuing education and skill development for all segments of their population.
According to one educationist, while universal primary education ( which is to be extended to eight years at least, as declared by the Prime Minister ) should remain a national goal in Bangladesh, at least half the adult population should get secondary and another 30 per cent higher secondary education. As for access to the tertiary level, at least ten per cent of the adult population should ideally get a chance if Bangladesh is to become a reasonably educated nation. But in order to lead the country towards sustainable development, just about five per cent of the adult population is required to be very highly educated, claimed a founder member of a private university's governing board. That may be very true but on a society-wide scale the denial of a reasonably balanced education for all harms the cause of democracy and social progress.
A 16-member committee was named in the first week of April, which is to meet soon to work out a 'time-worthy quality education policy' within the next three months. At least two of the professors were heard recently at the DU Arts Faculty Teachers' lounge, telling each other that they had seen their names in the newspapers. Does it imply that these good people had not been consulted prior to the education ministry's decision to put them on the committee ? Such adhocism ought to be avoided in something as crucial as a nation's education, which at this point in time, presents one of the most frustrating situations for Bangladesh's thinkers.
Ever since this country came into being there have been no dearth of education-development activities, ostensibly to upgrade content and teaching methodolgies as well as teacher-quality at primary, secondary and higher-secondary levels. Yet, over the past decades virtually nothing worthwhile has resulted from all the fuss and funds spent on the pretext of improving these fundamental inputs.
Now the buzzword is 'digital Bangladesh.' With that in mind, the education ministry declared the other day that IT would be a core course from class nine at least. The merit of this can hardly be underestimated, for an IT- savvy human resource no doubt would be better equipped to meet current global challenges. But does it not have to be knowledge-based in the first place, with 'real education' ? One educator succinctly says, the ultimate purpose of education is to 'learn to think and think to learn.' Unfortunately, this fundamental principle is absent in most of Bangladesh's educational institutions from the primary upwards. One might claim that the very foundations of mass mediocrity are laid early on due to widespread rote learning practices. Such a system would obviously yield nothing better than the current crop of unthinking drifters with meaningless 'certificates'. The tiny minority of boys and girls who achieve brilliant heights do so because of socio-economic privileges while the vast majority are hard put to sell either their brain or their brawn.
But let us not forget that one can learn IT mechanically and yet remain incapable of dealing with the challenges in a highly competitive knowledge-based world. It is important therefore that the government's focus is on improving the grey cells of both the teachers and the taught, early on, not just on the purchase of high-tech gadgets that few would be adept enough to use optimally. The digital Bangladesh slogan therefore should focus not on procuring hardware alone but, more importantly, on developing highly-skilled, value-added brainpower that would be marketable at home and throughout the world. On the optimist tone, the 'time-worthy quality education' initiative, if pursued consistently and earnestly from the very basic level, might take our overwhelmingly young population well on its way to becoming competitive, provided investment in education yielded what the 1990 World Conference on Education for All set out to accomplish.
It called for universal quality education, with a particular focus on the poorest citizens, and improved dissemination of the knowledge, skills and values required for better living and sustainable development. This vision of educational quality extends to issues of gender equality and equity, health and nutrition, parental and community involvement and the management of the education system itself. Such an approach calls for more perceptive curricula and excellent teacher-input, so that the very process of learning becomes a preparation for life. This, needless to say, is a tall order for Bangladesh's conventional system, which is mostly rigid and insensitive.
It may be mentioned here that the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child, which became binding international law the following year, and which Bangladesh has also ratified, elevates the educational 'needs' of children into their 'rights', as these are essential both to children's development and to social progress. Thus, Articles 28 and 29 of the Convention require countries to provide free, compulsory, quality basic schooling for all , without which the practice of democratic citizenship is bound to remain elusive.
People being the biggest natural resource, the most rational approach to true development would be to invest our minds, money and time in it ------ not in five year political terms, but a five hundred visionary one, for, from the perspective of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, education encompasses not only children's cognitive needs but also their physical, social, emotional, moral and spiritual development. In other words, it calls for nothing less than a revolution.
Many Asian countries, with their focus on human resource development, have much to boast about in the field of education, achieving globally recognised standards and moving ahead in a fast changing 21st century, a century marked by mind-boggling advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, informatics, neurosciences and what not. China, for example, has been one of the fastest. Over the past decade or so China's spending on colleges and universities has reportedly jumped tenfold,with research and technology in many spheres 'outshining anything in the United States.'
Bangladesh can learn from the experiences of countries in the region if it really means to nurture knowledge-based education. First and foremost, it has to arrest the low quality of education at the primary and secondary levels, focussing on both the general and madrasha streams and rationalising their contents and methods of instruction and evaluation. They must be thoroughly overhauled, and the teachers themselves subjected to rigorous training to enhance their capacities. If not, Bangladesh's higher-education-aspirants would continue to lag behind, except a few who have a head start in better quality elitist institutions.
Although there are widely differing opinions in Bangladesh regarding investment in higher education vis a vis primary, the fact remains that many developing countries have forged ahead in the past half century, giving equal importance to higher education, as well as research and development. China, Taiwan, South Korea and even India's gains in economic power are attributed to their high quality higher education, basic research and development, together with vocational and managerial training, and various opportunities for continuing education and skill development for all segments of their population.
According to one educationist, while universal primary education ( which is to be extended to eight years at least, as declared by the Prime Minister ) should remain a national goal in Bangladesh, at least half the adult population should get secondary and another 30 per cent higher secondary education. As for access to the tertiary level, at least ten per cent of the adult population should ideally get a chance if Bangladesh is to become a reasonably educated nation. But in order to lead the country towards sustainable development, just about five per cent of the adult population is required to be very highly educated, claimed a founder member of a private university's governing board. That may be very true but on a society-wide scale the denial of a reasonably balanced education for all harms the cause of democracy and social progress.