A recent study by World Bank laid bare the dilapidated condition of our education sector. The study revealed that 3 out of 4 students could not solve simple arithmetic problem in class 5. In class 3, 43% students could not answer in Bengali to simple questions.
The Bank's report titled "The World Development Report: Learning To Realize Education's Promise" found a Bangladeshi kid spends 4 years of 11-year-of schooling in vain learning nothing at school. Among others, the study found poor quality of teaching and poor school management are responsible for this.
Government however put in place programs to improve the quality of education at primary level. For instance, it has been implementing Primary Education Development Program for a long time. Currently PEDP-4 is being implemented , whose core objective is to train more than hundreds of thousands of teachers and thousands of trainers in English at a cost of Tk 44,654 crore, as disclosed by a Daily Star report. PEDP-3 cost the government Tk 22,196 crore. World Bank also pledged to provide $700 million in PEDP-4.
I don't know whether the World Bank study intended to measure the progress earlier PEDPs made. But it seems that PEDP-3 failed miserably in terms of improving quality of teaching and learning environment in the classroom and acquiring grade-wise or subject-wise learning outcomes.
It is pretty obvious that these programs did not live up to the the expectations of government and development partners. The widespread aura is that money has been wasted. Despite the fact that PEDP-4 has already drawn resources , the bigger question is whether the PEDP-4 will be able to achieve the desired goals.
It is however not clear whether the teachers and trainers are existing ones or the new ones. Or a mix of both. Recently I read a news report of protesting school teachers. The teachers recruited as part School Education Quality Enhancement Programme(SEQEP) laid siege to the front road of Press Club and demanded permanent recruitment. They were recruited as additional teachers to improve the quality of English, Math and Science teaching. No sooner the fund had dried out they were laid off. During the recruitment, no one clearly conveyed the message whether their recruitment was temporary or permanent, as claimed one protesting teacher. They staged an indefinite hunger strike for couple of weeks and later went into oblivion. The protest mocked the objective this kind of programs intended to achieve as such programs neither improved the quality of education nor ensured decent livelihood of the teachers.
Do not forget the political factor.There has been growing tendency in this part of the world to recruit teachers on political grounds. Politicians are involved in running the school management committee. So it is likely have some kind of impact on classroom teaching.
Besides, salaries can also be seen as one of the obstacles for not getting qualified teachers at primary and secondary level. My personal take is to use more and more university graduates who are about to enter active life or retired government and private officials. Apart from salary, graduates can be given additional scores to their public service examination scores for their minimum 1-year/6-month service at school. This will induce many graduates to take up the job. Many willing retired person may also contribute to improvement of school learning process. At school, I met such a teacher who had been college principal but took up the English teacher job to spend his post retirement life in a productive way. Of course the school paid him for his contribution.
To supplement the learning at school, government can set up libraries at school and outside school. A lower middle-income and middle-income parents do not have the means to buy all the text books in a syllabus. Through various ministries government can fund the libraries and initiate activities that concentrate on how to use dictionaries, understanding value of team effort, learning through alternative means , painting, ICT and watching educational contents.
Government can also take programs to purchase educational contents from private production houses to facilitate the learning process of school-goers.
For that it needs to invest lots of money. Bangladesh's total spending on education as percentage of GDP is the lowest in South Asia. In 2015, Bangladesh's public spending on education was 2.18%, only Sri Lanka shared that percentage in South Asia. (Source: UNESCO Institute For Statistics)
In addition, percentage of female students at tertiary education is also declining. In 2014, 41.7% of the enrolled students at the Masters program at tertiary institutions were female. In 2016, it was declined to 34.25% . In 2017, it was improved to 40.92%. (Source: UNESCO Institute For Statistics)
Female teachers are less inclined to shirking at workplace. So recruiting them large numbers could help achieve the desired goals of the various programs government desires to achieve. Their greater participation at the Masters program means we are equipping our future teachers with new knowledge set and tools that will help nurturing the budding minds.
Government's lofty development ambitions may crash land unless it significantly increases its spending on education. The World Bank study is a stark reminder that we have to do more in education. At one hand , increasing the public expenditures is imperative. On the other hand, efficient and transparent use of this allocation is a must to attain the desired goals. And these two are inseparable.
The Bank's report titled "The World Development Report: Learning To Realize Education's Promise" found a Bangladeshi kid spends 4 years of 11-year-of schooling in vain learning nothing at school. Among others, the study found poor quality of teaching and poor school management are responsible for this.
Government however put in place programs to improve the quality of education at primary level. For instance, it has been implementing Primary Education Development Program for a long time. Currently PEDP-4 is being implemented , whose core objective is to train more than hundreds of thousands of teachers and thousands of trainers in English at a cost of Tk 44,654 crore, as disclosed by a Daily Star report. PEDP-3 cost the government Tk 22,196 crore. World Bank also pledged to provide $700 million in PEDP-4.
I don't know whether the World Bank study intended to measure the progress earlier PEDPs made. But it seems that PEDP-3 failed miserably in terms of improving quality of teaching and learning environment in the classroom and acquiring grade-wise or subject-wise learning outcomes.
It is pretty obvious that these programs did not live up to the the expectations of government and development partners. The widespread aura is that money has been wasted. Despite the fact that PEDP-4 has already drawn resources , the bigger question is whether the PEDP-4 will be able to achieve the desired goals.
It is however not clear whether the teachers and trainers are existing ones or the new ones. Or a mix of both. Recently I read a news report of protesting school teachers. The teachers recruited as part School Education Quality Enhancement Programme(SEQEP) laid siege to the front road of Press Club and demanded permanent recruitment. They were recruited as additional teachers to improve the quality of English, Math and Science teaching. No sooner the fund had dried out they were laid off. During the recruitment, no one clearly conveyed the message whether their recruitment was temporary or permanent, as claimed one protesting teacher. They staged an indefinite hunger strike for couple of weeks and later went into oblivion. The protest mocked the objective this kind of programs intended to achieve as such programs neither improved the quality of education nor ensured decent livelihood of the teachers.
Do not forget the political factor.There has been growing tendency in this part of the world to recruit teachers on political grounds. Politicians are involved in running the school management committee. So it is likely have some kind of impact on classroom teaching.
Besides, salaries can also be seen as one of the obstacles for not getting qualified teachers at primary and secondary level. My personal take is to use more and more university graduates who are about to enter active life or retired government and private officials. Apart from salary, graduates can be given additional scores to their public service examination scores for their minimum 1-year/6-month service at school. This will induce many graduates to take up the job. Many willing retired person may also contribute to improvement of school learning process. At school, I met such a teacher who had been college principal but took up the English teacher job to spend his post retirement life in a productive way. Of course the school paid him for his contribution.
To supplement the learning at school, government can set up libraries at school and outside school. A lower middle-income and middle-income parents do not have the means to buy all the text books in a syllabus. Through various ministries government can fund the libraries and initiate activities that concentrate on how to use dictionaries, understanding value of team effort, learning through alternative means , painting, ICT and watching educational contents.
Government can also take programs to purchase educational contents from private production houses to facilitate the learning process of school-goers.
For that it needs to invest lots of money. Bangladesh's total spending on education as percentage of GDP is the lowest in South Asia. In 2015, Bangladesh's public spending on education was 2.18%, only Sri Lanka shared that percentage in South Asia. (Source: UNESCO Institute For Statistics)
2015 Public Spending On Education As Percentage Of GDP. Source: UNESCO Institute For StatisticsIn addition, percentage of female students at tertiary education is also declining. In 2014, 41.7% of the enrolled students at the Masters program at tertiary institutions were female. In 2016, it was declined to 34.25% . In 2017, it was improved to 40.92%. (Source: UNESCO Institute For Statistics)
Female teachers are less inclined to shirking at workplace. So recruiting them large numbers could help achieve the desired goals of the various programs government desires to achieve. Their greater participation at the Masters program means we are equipping our future teachers with new knowledge set and tools that will help nurturing the budding minds.
Government's lofty development ambitions may crash land unless it significantly increases its spending on education. The World Bank study is a stark reminder that we have to do more in education. At one hand , increasing the public expenditures is imperative. On the other hand, efficient and transparent use of this allocation is a must to attain the desired goals. And these two are inseparable.
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