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New curriculum: A step forward towards Smart Bangladesh

Published : Sunday, 10 March, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1473
Dr Md Aktaruzzaman
Our education system needs further improvements in order to be a developed country in 2041. The foundation for this needs to be strengthened and it is started with the formulation of new curricula at the secondary and higher secondary levels. Now lets see what kind of education is prevalent in developed countries. In 2022-23, I worked on skilled manpower development in various countries of America and Europe during the fellowship of the U.S State Department.The idea was that they would take us to visit various universities. Surprisingly, that was not the case, mostly they took us to visit various high schools and colleges. There I saw students in class 8/9/10 doing meaningful collaborative projects together. They give more importance to project-based learning than rote memorization. This kind of project-based collaborative learning has been given priority in the new curriculum.

We want to build a self-reliant smart Bangladesh but do not want to get out of the conventional mindset. This is the biggest challenge to the implementation of the new curriculum at the secondary and higher secondary levels. The developed world has long abandoned the assessment system we are used to over the years based on memorization such asmemorizing four poems and ten essays and writing in the examination.Instead, they emphasize collaborative and project-based learning. In the era of Google, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT we must lean towards authentic assessment.

If there is one difference between the education system of Bangladesh and that of developed countries, it must be our late thinking about jobs. We don think of jobs before graduation andpost-graduation, or we couldn create opportunities for it. And in the developed countries, students in high schoolsat grades 8-12 complete 2-3 vocational skills along with regular courses, such as medical assistant, automobile, carpentry, electrician, plumbing, nursing, or something else.Need skills that are current and employable on the job. If we think in this way, then on the one hand it will increase the efficiency and salary of the remittance fighters (most of them go abroad while at high schools or colleges) and also create a large pool of skilled manpower in the country. The average citizen loses 5-10 years of working hours if they start working at an older age than they should.

Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury MP has rightly said that there may be a change in the evaluation system in view of the need. In order to build a self-reliant Bangladesh, technical elements must be added to conventional education. That doesn mean that you have to work all day with irons, hardware, and hammers. Learning any language is a skill, learning computer programming is a skill, learning cooking is a skill.We have to develop an education system that can play an important role in the economic and social development of the country by creating skilled and demanding manpower. The purpose of education is not solely to get a job, but an education that can feed twice a day is meaningless. A change will begin with the new curriculum that is what country and the nation expects.

Out of 100 students in a class 20-30 become engineers, doctors or officers, where will the remaining 70-80 people go? In many cases the job class is not directly correlated with the results. Some people give the example of India - how many of their doctors, engineers, IT professionals go abroad and how many other common people go abroad. If you do a little calculation, you will see that it is like 1:4.It is better to think about the future of 70-80 students than the top 20-30 in the class. We have toget rid of this vicious cyclelike educated unemployed or unemployable educated after studying general education. We become a burden to the country and family but still we do not consider technical education. The countrys main source of income is garments and remittance, so it is more important for us to be a skilled worker than an officer.

A car mechanic, for instance in developed countries does not earn less than a professor in many cases and there is notmuch difference in their social values, it does not mean that no one needs to be a professor. One has to burn a lot to become a professor, but if you give the basic idea of some technical education along with general education in class 6-12, one can easily become a mechanic by getting a certification abroad.Such is the practice in Australia, Europe or America. An auto mechanic there earns not less than 7-8 thousand dollars on an average and it is rare to get their appointments in many cases. Everyone does not need to go to the universitythat often results in more unemployment. A new curriculum may therefore mark the beginning of a change.

All students must be certified in at least two vocational trades and two language before class XII. For those interested in higher education, they need to acquire the same skills along with graduation. In this case Academic Bank of Credits (ABC) can be a very good initiative. Besides, partnership is needed with foreign institutions such as those from Singapore, Germany, Australia, America.Educated unemployment is a burden to the country, society and family. Therefore, if skilled manpower can be created according to the needs of the country and global demands,remittance can increase 5-7 times in the next 10 yearsalong with socio-economic development.

Last month I bought a reading table for my son who is studying at a school in Melbourne. I expected a fitted table or2-3 parts maximum that I could easily assemble. But the reality was different! 30-40 parts received-I was in a big trouble! Then my son said, "Don worry, I will do it". In their Grade VII STEM education course, Product Design (Wood) was taught. Now he is at Grade VIII and is studying Cooking Technology course. This is the practice in the developed countries. If this happened in our country, then we would have defamed the school, trolleditor said - will we be carpenter, why should we study these? And if cooking was taught in place of wood, they would say its womens work, am I poor? I have four maids, five helpersetc.

A report by the World Economic Forum indicated that "65% of children entering primary school today will eventually work in entirely new jobs that do not yet exist". So, education is not a vaccine - it is for life. The jobs of the future will be those that cannot be done by machines. At the same time, areas such as creative endeavours, social interaction, vocational skills where humans can beat machines will be open for job creation.We see the worlds of work and education increasingly converging around the world. Instead of thinking of education as a means of acquiring knowledge, we need to focus on an integrated approach of general education and work-oriented education. This is the one of the main objectives of the new national curriculum.

Education is an ongoing process. Should have been more careful about copyright issues, religious values and customs and some other errors. But nothing in the world starts out 100 percent correct, thats why refinements and enhancements have been going on for ages. People always want to walk in their familiar path, do not want to accept drastic changes easily.When computers first came to the country in the 90s, many people did not take it well, just as many people now do not easily accept artificial intelligence (AI) or generative AI such as ChatGPT. But soon they will be part of peoples daily work.

Let me conclude today with a recent conversation - I was talking to a Bangladeshi born American researcher. Researcher: No country in the world has such a strange education curriculum. Me: Europe, Australia and America have it. Researcher: Our culture is different, why should we follow it, if they learn violin or cooking, why should we copy it? Me: How is the American curriculum? Researcher: That is bogus, we were good to be researchers, now it is getting worse. Me: What percentage of students in a classroom of our country are becoming researchers, not even 0.01%? Sometimes we do not know what exactly we want. So, leaving aside the arguments, lets think about how to make the new national curriculum more useful and effective. Be a part of an ongoing process with your informed opinion andenrich the country and the nation.

The writer is a Curriculum, Digital Education and Cyber Security Expert, Melbourne, Australia



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