Changes can ensure quality education in country

Primary education has always been a high priority of all the Governments of Bangladesh. Many initiatives have also been taken under successive governments for the improvement of this sector, which have produced some remarkable successes. The enrollment of female students is now equal to that of males. The participation and passing rate in the primary examination has significantly increased. However, despite all these achievements, the quality of primary education under some other vital considerations has not improved up to the expected level. A report published by the Campaign for Popular Education in 2001, showed that around 98 percent of primary students could not obtain the level of competence determined by the National Curriculum Textbook Board (NCTB). After almost 20 years, the percentage has reduced but not at a satisfactory level at all
In some probable cases, the workload is huge. On that note, a change in the school administration is badly needed. So how will we bring the change? For that, everyone has to come forward, especially those who are in the system. They have to relentlessly work to reduce the mentioned non-academic workload of teachers.


Why do we think this change is obligatory? The change is compulsory for the improvement of education quality in schools. Because if the teachers are deprived of their chance for compulsory involvement in the teaching-learning process, the quality of education will decline at an alarming rate. The teachers are unable to work towards building language, social, scientific, and mathematical competency as well as skills because of their additional engagements. There is another undeniable concern; educators lack the physical and mental motivation to provide extra care for the students outside the classroom resulting from fatigue caused by extra work. It is also noticeable that the usage of materials in the classroom has reduced to a significant level.

So how will we bring the change? To begin with, the government can go for creating an environment for change. The situation is already in the need of momentum toward a reform favorable environment. It is high time to start the movement. The approaches should be collective and fueled by data collected from teachers, students as well as guardians to make the issue visual to the proper authorities and management bodies.

The change will start to blossom in stages. And the committee will see through it so that the stages are implemented properly. They will make plans of communication, and surveys, the deadlines by which each stage will completely flourish, and the initial ending of the implementation.

And also increasing the number of teachers, communicating with the proper authority to create a temporary contract-based IT post, delegating work to prospective vendors and choosing the proper app developer, and collecting sufficient user feedback to develop the user experience should be done by maintaining clear and proper strategy or else an unbearable burden will result in uncontrollable domino effect crumbling the integrity of the organization.
Then to engage and enable the organization, the responsible department will communicate to other stakeholders in the organization about the changes they are going to make. There will be many obstacles in the way so communication is crucial to move the plan forward.

The school will most surely have funding issues and a lack of proper technical support to build the app and develop the user experience. So it should be clear that the school will feel a financial burden minimum and their agency will try to attract the government for funding the project. It should be understood by all individuals in the organization that the prior investment for a better future is always for the best of the organization.

The Assistant Teachers (ATs) may have issues with using temporary help and delegating the work to the vendors. It is so because oftentimes ATs receive remuneration for such works. So it should be well communicated by the SMC, HT, and guardians how the concern is affecting the teaching-learning process in the school. The key is for all individuals to be aligned with the plan and the preferred outcome.

Now with the needed change, the school may employ new ATs with IT proficiency to reduce the workload and then create temporary IT clerk posts and executive officer posts. The posts created will be contract based so that once the project ends the personnel could be laid off. This personnel will be selected from the teachers employed in the school. This will help the school to tackle the financial stress of hiring additional employees.


Next, the school may start to delegate the work to the prospective vendors and shift these IT proficient teachers to build user experience for the application. This will reduce the workload of ATs and let the management some breathing space to work on the application.
To ensure the sustainability of the change, constant feedback from the ATs, guardians, and students can help the management to figure out which part of the plan is working out and which part might need rethinking. The management can maximize the wins and mitigate the prevailing issues while moving forward toward the goal.


At last, the organization will be ready to implement the new norms for utilizing the potential of the change. This means the organization can stick to the new workflow and savor the fruit of allowing educators to involve more in the teaching-learning process. If the teachers feel inspired and encouraged to break these boundaries, those talented minds will give their best to ensure quality education which will be helpful to make better tomorrow. Will concern authority give a try to bring the changes?


-    Harun Ar- Rashid Mamun, Fellow of Teach For Bangladesh and student of BRAC Institute of Educational Development (BRAC IED)