More or less as a citizen we know education is our one of the fundamental rights, and all persons, especially children of Bangladesh deserve in receiving full free education up to a certain level. It's also clearly written in our constitution. But what does the reality say? Do our children have access to education as mentioned in the Constitution? In this question, the reality always remains speechless, and then who is responsible? Our government? The public? Our mentality? Or, the concerned authority? It has always been seen whenever something happens wrong in this sector, all demerits went over the shoulder of the government. And, it's easy to avoid one's own responsibility. Is the government, in fact, reliable for it? Before put the government at the Dias in this respect, let's see some surveys recently done by the different liable organizations.
A recent Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) internal report shows that around 70 percent of children are unable to read or write properly, or perform basic mathematical calculations even something common teaching method at secondary classes in the country is lecturing and reading textbooks and when it comes to interaction, teachers only ask closed 'yes' or 'no' questions to check whether the students have memorized the textbook information or not. Most teachers feel uncomfortable in adopting innovative educational approaches as they have got frightened that using other approaches may result in poor performances in examinations. As a result, though the pass rates in public examinations are getting higher, a huge number of students are failing to master the desired competencies due to a flawed teaching system.
Though Bangladesh is on the move towards industrialization, the number of people living below the poverty line is also decreasing. The policy makers expect that Bangladesh is likely to achieve the status of a middle-income country in 2021. A lot of industries need skilled human resources. Indeed, a shortage of technically skilled human resources will be a major impediment to economic development of the country. Currently, the economy in Bangladesh moves through three major sectors- agriculture, remittances and export. If feed these sectors with an educated and skilled workforce can be fed, it will reshape the economy and plays a significant role in alleviating poverty. But needless to say that education is a major driving force of development in any society, whether the country is developing or developed. Expertise in this regard, have been - for a very long time - stressed that education has a significant role to play in poverty reduction in various ways. A positive link between an income based poverty concept and education can be found in the process of economic growth. Truly speaking, the education in Bangladesh reflects with no market demand or job-oriented syllabus.
The research shows that 35 to 40 percent of the students in our country don't have any scope of enrolling themselves to colleges or public universities, though Bangladesh has certainly made landmark progress in expanding the primary education, especially raising enrollment of the students and bringing gender parity. But our education system is not yet pro-poor, and the quality and curriculum do not effectively serve the goals of human development and poverty eradication. Due to the traditional views in education, quality or skilled persons climb the ladder of poverty, for the various types of education systems that exist in our country need unifying. Discrimination in every stage of education should be given importance in alleviation. Otherwise, mental separation will be established from the very beginning of their educational life, which affects the goals and become very dangerous for a nation. Another shocking for the nation, though it's true and common picture in the country, is that a survey conducted by the BRAC unfolds that at every step of the primary education; even the poor parents are compelled to give bribe if they want their children to school. As for this matter concerned authorities in education will say about its fakeness, anbe d is of no base as there has been no written proof, but what they will talk about the survey revealed by BRAC. How will they falsify it? But in reality, the research shows different statement. Now is the time to debug roots of the corruption, especially in primary education, the backbone of a nation where in our constitution, all the children of Bangladesh are supposed to receive full free education. Needless to say if any person imposes the responsibilities upon the government, s/he is like a one-eyed dragon, and has some problems in her/him. The government might have been logistically some pitfalls to take the initiatives in changing the environment of the existing traditional education in the country. As for it, the government can't escape the responsibilities, but all the liabilities can't be put over the government as a whole, because of the initiatives being fruitless, most of the discredit points at the authorities concerned. Since Bangladesh spends less than 3 percent of its GDP on the education sector, and the national budget for the year 2013, the education sector got the third largest allocation amounting to Tk.25, 114 crore of which Tk. 11,935.37 crore was set for the primary and mass education, and Tk.13, 179.23 crore for the education ministry. The budgetary allocation for education in our country is not sufficient compared with those of other South Asian and developing countries that give education at the top of the policy agenda. More investment should be made to upgrade the infrastructure facilities. Teacher training must also be emphasized, with age-old methods of delivering only lectures replaced by classroom interaction. In every level, teachers' appointment should be taken into account based on merit and experience, not on political consideration.
Every year around 1.8 million people are adding to our existing workforce and the youth labour force will nearly reach more than 30 million by the year. As the forces of globalization become stronger, the need for education and human capital investment is likely to rise even further. In fact, it is not just education per se but the quality of education that is paramount if one is to head in this constant competitive world. Keeping in mind the demand of our economy and the changing global economy a linkage between our education sector and the job market demands to develop that is a crucial need of the time. If we ignore this necessity of the era, and put it aside, this will debilitated prospect and possibility of the strength of education. What is the ultimate future of the third generation? More or less everyone can say about its consequence, for this reason, no one is expected to be the expert in this respect as s/he is supposed to be. Now, it's time to think of the issue very seriously; otherwise, no one can escape from its responsibility. Can't we?
The writer is a poet &
fiction writer
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