Primary education in disarray

Primary school teachers on token hunger strike

There is a sense of déjà vu here in the country as we watch a paralysed government struggling to hang on to its brute majority till the last day ignoring or rather defying all doomsday scenario being played out. In the backdrop of violence, death and destruction looms the deadly serious issue of the country's political future.

With the new voter list preparation problem coming to a head now after the Supreme court verdict, and the CEC M.A Aziz and two commissioners clinging to their positions despite widespread criticism about their partisan role, prices of essentials skyrocketing with each passing day, garments sector in flames and foreign exchange reserve dipping alarmingly, the country is heading towards critical economic meltdown.

But unhappily the BNP-led alliance government seems to be cynical about all these ominous developments. It is an irony that should escape no one. People are asking where all the money put in the power sector, infrastructure development, poverty alleviation programme go without bringing about the slightest change in the development index of the country? The party that used the religion issue to muscle its way into power is lost in the maze of its own creation. People had expected this party to act in a responsible manner as government but, sadly, it has failed to bring any relief to the general public as well as to its rank and file.

The money the alliance government put in the pipeline of development has mostly gone into the pockets of its stalwarts, flunkies and over zealous and over sheltered cadres and greedy politicians, so go the allegations. In recent times it has never ceased to amaze us that, regardless of the state of the economy, the level of ostentatious consumption keeps on increasing in the country. Since the advent of liberalisation and market economy, the hesitation to display one's wealth publicly has virtually vanished. Earlier such displays were clouded with a degree of embarrassment; now there is little inhibition. But behind the glitter of the glitzy malls attracting a section of the people and brand new luxurious cars plying the city streets, there lies a pathetic story of wanton poverty and helplessness of a vast section of the populace that ekes out a miserable existence. Conscious citizens fear that politician-bureaucrat-powercrat triumvirate continues to gloss over the country's problems for short-term gains.

Evidently, as it has always been the case in the country during the last four years it was not money as much as the lack of good ideas, programmes and most of all, proper functioning that stood in the way to achieving the targets of development.

As someone who believes fundamentally that Bangladesh will be a developed country only if we manage to make every Bangladeshi literate, I seize any chance to bring up the subject. The finance minister's budget placed in the parliament on June 8 last made no special allocation on primary education front. Undeniably true, literacy drive forms the most crucial factor in achieving the MDG. Since independence of the country in 1971 primary education has been treated with a mixture of neglect and tokenism that has made us as one of the most illiterate countries of the world. Referring to the recruitment of 14000 teachers in the primary schools in the next few months, the World Bank director expressed her dismay at the move to recruit these teachers on political consideration rather than on merit and professional skills. The move comes at a time when education at the primary stage is mired in a crisis. Its problems are two fold: lack of resources and declining quality.

The reason for declining quality of schooling in the country, as one might have recognised, is the physical infrastructure that is woefully inadequate. If all children were in school as they are meant to be, school buildings or ramshackle houses, as they are now, would burst at the seams. Our survey in some sample villages from Magura to Narail to Jhenidah to Satkhira in an effort to find enrolment of girls in these schools revealed a very depressing picture. Girl students in most families do not go to schools mainly because of the reluctance of the parents to spend on their daughters' education. This is amply supported by the fact that if resources are scarce, the tendency is to give priority to boys.

Moreover, in some villages there is no infrastructure worth the name. It has been revealed that the state of the premises was the main reason why children were not drawn to school. In many villages if there are structures or tin-roofed houses or even brick-built houses, these have leaking roofs, making it difficult to hold classes during rains. In the present set up of the primary schools with an enrolment of about 200 students in each school, how much attention can a child hope to receive from his /her teacher is any body's guess. In one finding it has been revealed that children who have managed to study up to class five learned almost nothing. Most of them are unable to read or write even after several years of schooling. Other than that, their hand writing is abysmal. The reason is that paper is costly and children do not get or their parents cannot provide them with enough paper or copy book to practice handwriting.

The situation in the secondary schools and colleges is also equally appalling. English is hardly taught even at the secondary stage and there is a dearth of competent English teachers. As it appears, education from primary to college level is a low priority subject. In this background it is easier to understand why so many students drop out, despite the high level of parental interest in their wards' education.

On the other hand, teachers' quality and teaching ability are also abysmal, because many of them roped their way to the teaching profession, most often not to their likings and interest. No wonder the teaching job that demands high commitment from the teachers is distinctly missing. The dismal performance of the students in the SSC examinations as well as the quality of the products from all such rural based primary and secondary schools calls for an in depth analysis of the state of education in the country. To drive through the villages in the northern and southern districts of the country is to understand in all its horror the extent of our population problem : vast cohorts of malnourished children moving on the streets aimlessly.

In village after village you see it is the poorest, most illiterate women who have the most children. Precisely speaking, most of the countryside is now portrait of human misery because of our failure to invest in our children's future. The condition in which these women and children live beggars any description. This in a country in which many are still basking in the glow of their riches. The ruling party bosses since they assumed power in 2001 have often spoken about alleviation of poverty and empowerment of women. True, when leaders lack the sagacity and stamina to make policy that works, they give us slogans. But there can be no empowerment 'such a fashionable word these days' without literacy.

As far as the government is concerned it is statistics about the spread of literacy that count. But if education is a means to transform lives then a substandard education is of little use. Despite the fact that finance minister in his budget proposal has made the highest allocation -- 15.9% -- in the education sector, no mention has been made about the amount going for the development of the primary education.

With the primary school teachers agitating in the streets of Dhaka to realise their demands the situation in the educational sector as now turning messy and chaotic. It is time our leaders and planners realised that a country's human capital depends on the quality of its educational system.

Md Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of examinations, BUET.