Raising the bar in education
The picture might apply to a minority group of students in Canada -- a country where the literacy rate is 99% but it may well apply to a large majority of the young population in Bangladesh where the literacy rate is an inadequate 43%. Bangladesh has approximately 84 million people who are 24 years and under (as of 2006) and the youth illiteracy rate (age 15-24) is 50.3%.
If Bangladesh aims to achieve a sustained and accelerated economic growth, it needs to prepare its people for the demands of modern society. Moreover, with a fledgling population, national demand for skills such as engineering, information technology, and science will increase in the coming decades. On top of that, the country faces the challenge of providing employment opportunities to an increasingly budding population.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Better quality education at all levels from basic literacy to high-tech education is the prerequisite to improving productivity, spurring growth, sustaining the environment and ensuring domestic stability.
Historically, all prosperous countries have used education as a ticket out of poverty as an educated population will lead to increased potential for technology application and the ability of a growing number to show entrepreneurial skills.
In a vast country like China, the literacy rate among people between the ages of 12 and 40 is now a staggering 96%. A big feat for a country which had a literacy rate of only 60% at the end of the Cultural Revolution in the late 1970s. It is now churning out the largest number of engineering graduates in the world, with some 600,000 passing out its colleges and universities last year, with India not too far behind with approximately 470,000 every year.
Bangladesh, on the other hand, is yet to make impressive strides in terms of human development in IT, medicine, engineering, and other disciplines.
The current education system in Bangladesh lacks an ambitious roadmap. Bangladesh's future development in many different spheres will depend on corresponding development of different skills of its people. The prosperity of the nation hinges on addressing educational inequality between male and female and the rural and urban, revamping the curriculum and assessment methods, and emphasizing the need for competence in science and technology. All those who aspire for higher education should have access to cutting edge educational institutions, adequate infrastructural facilities, among others.
Here are a few of the factors that will collectively raise the standard at all levels of education:
Significant emphasis on literacy
Closing the learning gap requires that we first ensure all students learn to read and write well. Essentially, until a school is able to teach reading and writing so that all students become increasingly literate as they progress through the grades, other areas of the curriculum cannot succeed, according to educational researchers.
Focus on improving teaching
Continuous and relentless use of different instructional methods at all levels of the system must guide school improvement work. Having said this, there should be sufficient motivation for teachers in the form of professional development and other work-related incentives. Studies show that high-quality, research-based professional development is essential for improving teaching in ways that will impact all students' learning.
Emphasis on a "rich curriculum"
Although increasing the literacy rate and putting a check on drop-out rates are the first steps in trying to promote universal education, achieving inspiring pedagogical quality should be prioritized at the same time. The developed world has moved away from the factory model -- schools where students had been working passively, listening to lectures and memorizing facts. With the prolific existence of data and information, why should students be subjected to only rote learning? They should be able to use data and information to make informed judgments, conduct further research, apply critical thinking skills and above all be creative.
Enhancing classroom assessment
Educators have traditionally relied on assessment that followed a predictable pattern: teachers taught, gave exams, made judgments about the student based on the testing, and moved on. The traditional method which encompasses solely tests and exams is termed "assessment of learning." Learning is now viewed as a process of constructing understanding and educators need to assess a wider range of student work, such as projects, presentations, etc. Assessment methods in contemporary schools have been re-designed to elicit students' learning and meta-cognitive processes in order to meet today's sophisticated workplace demands.
Individual and collective well being of the country in the coming years and beyond, depends on its intellectual competency. For Bangladesh to keep pace with advancements, raising the bar in education at all levels must become the societal imperative.