Quality education beyond people's reach: Educationists

Educationists of the country said on Saturday that quality education is beyond the reach of people.

They think that the rate of literacy has increased but quality education has not increased.

They want universal mass education system without any discrimination as mass-oriented non-commercial education is the pre-condition of a developed country.
Educationists and other speakers expressed these views at a seminar, "Universal Mass-oriented Science-based Education Policy: Citizens' Thinking in the Current Context" organised at the Nasrul Hamid Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) at Segunbagicha in the capital.

The seminar was hosted by National Education-Culture Movement.

In her keynote paper, Professor Kaberi Gayen of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism of Dhaka University said, "Initiative of the state is needed for the creative development of teachers and students.

The state's investment in education is still the lowest even in South Asia. The educational policy and philosophy should be democratic, non-sectarian, science-based, secular and independent."

Quoting data of Bangladesh Bureau of Education and Statistics (BANBAIS), Kaberi Gayen said, "Currently there are 9,268 Alia Madrasahs in the country, with 27,62,277 students.

According to information given to parliament by Education Minister Dipu Moni,  2022, the country has 19,199 qawmi madrasahs, with about 14,00,000 students."

She said, "The government recognised six boards of education under  the 2018 law to provide Master's degree equivalent certificates in  Dawra-e-Hadith in Qawmi Madrasahs.

Besides, there are Hafezia, Ebtedayi, Forkaniya madrasahs under the Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board. As a result, it is difficult to know the exact number of students."

She pointed out that the current education policy made in 2010 is not suitable for the physical and mental development of children.

"Despite possibilities, the problems in the country's education sector surfaced in last 12 years. Those involved in the formulation of this policy, however, blame failure to properly implement many of the recommendations of the declared policy for the problems," she said

Kaberi Gayen said, "one-year pre-primary school which was yet to start in government primary schools, as scheduled. Rather, it is mostly run by NGOs or private associations, for which they are either very expensive or provide low-quality education. This educational policy is not suitable for children's mental and physical development."

She said that in the last 10-12 years, apart from creating separate posts for pre-primary teachers and classrooms, the ministry has not been able to issue any specific order to maintain uniform standards or to continue pre-primary education.

She said that due to lack of infrastructure, universal and compulsory primary education up to class VIII has been abandoned.

Again, the process has become more complicated with the introduction of the Primary Education Ending Examination at the end of Class V and the Junior School Certificate Examination (JSC) at the end of Class VIII.

From the beginning, experts feared that public exams at the age of 11-12 could create harmful stress on children and create unhealthy competition among them.

Dhaka University Anthropology Professor Zobaida Nasreen said that   independent Bangladesh was born because of the philosophy of higher education of the time. Now sectarianism and discrimination engulfed the education policy.

Cultural figure Mahmud Salim, also Convener of the National Education-Culture Movement, presided over the seminar while prominent Educationist AN Rasheda, Journalist leader and Daily Kalbela News Editor Raju Ahmed, Bangladesh College-University Teachers Association Joint General Secretary Akmal Hossain  spoke, among others.

Rustum Ali Khokon, Member Secretary of the National Education-Culture Movement, conducted the seminar.