The debate over school textbooks

Use of language in Bangladesh school textbooks is spurring battles across the country. The nation is divided on school textbooks that were distributed recently to school students all over the country. Teachers, educators, parents, social groups and lawmakers are protesting every day in the media. People view the texts as an explicit portrayal of certain religious views and teachings.

People are concerned why the Bangladesh curriculum committee added this year some of those seventeen stories and poems that were not accepted last year, as those allegedly reflect communal sentiments. And why 12 stories and poems rejected earlier by Hefajat E Islam -- a political party, were not included. This Islamic political party accused that those pieces reflect the idea of atheism and Hinduism, so those must not be included as texts. The texts of Humayun Azad, Kusumkumari, were also rejected by this party. It is indeed strange to see that to satisfy this party, gendered and religious ideas were included while introducing alphabets in grade 1 textbook. It seems a secular multicultural country lost its essence due to the political trickery of racial and political agenda.

Development of a society is hugely reliant on how it invests in human capital from the early stage of learning. Human capital theory rests on the assumption that formal education is instrumental and necessary for improving the productive capacity of a population. It focuses on productivity and efficiency among the labour force and supports investment in formal education to enhance individuals' capabilities by increasing their levels of cognitive development. The idea was to invest in the establishment of education systems, create employment and to develop strong cores of workers and managers.

This idea of human capital theory was critiqued as "technocratic-meritocratic" because of its over-emphasis on producing skills and knowledge for learners to become successful workers. It has also been criticised for its failure to adequately address inequality in society. However, since 1970s, Bangladesh like the other developing countries concentrated on this human capital agenda and the belief that teachers' time and effort can enhance learners' skills and abilities, leading to job market rewards.  But currently, Bangladesh is prone to developing racial texts.

Scholars view racial theory as central to understanding curriculum. The issue of multiculturalism has created debate about whether curriculum reform is necessary. Bangladeshi intellectuals and educators insist that curriculum must be reformed to reflect the history of the nation and its cultures, including those of the ethnic groups.

Reading the current conflicts about the texts issue, I am pessimistic about the role of current formal education, as I consider 'school and the racial and political text' is the source of social inequalities, increasing unequal power relationships in Bangladesh.  I argue that current racial texts will fuel up social inequality and favour a social structure that is biased towards certain religious groups.

This will challenge the significance of education and skills for economic and social development, and the unequal power relationships will undermine the marginalised. Education and employment opportunities are closely inter-related, but school structures and curriculum help maintain society's social and economic structures. The concept of ideology is central to understanding curriculum as a political text. As the current curriculum appears to have hidden dimensions, its ideological values would negatively affect learners' self-development.

Racial text is the consequence of the 'tricks and trickery of politics' of the ruling elites. We hope the government acknowledged how they are losing their political grip to racist, fundamentalist political view. As we all know, how allowing a vulnerable, religious fundamentalist stream into politics and making coalition with them jeopardised Bangladesh's secular environment.

Past regime's idea of declaring Islam as a state religion was a hard blow for the multicultural people of Bangladesh. Zia and Ershad regimes are (equally) responsible for dividing the nation in the name of religion. Later on, the current government is alleged to have adopted this divisive notion for its own political advantage. Getting votes with the attitude of  'go with the flow' is not beneficial in restoring country's peace, safety, security, and crafting a stable social and political environment.

The writer is an anthropologist and environmentalist. She is pursuing her PhD research on Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto, Canada. pamelia07@hotmail.com