In search of knowledge idols

Thanks to a burgeoning electronic media, we now have some young talents in music and entertainment arena. Such endeavours have also led to positive effects on another score: for instance, many urban Bangladeshi youth who might have surfed foreign media channels of competing interest, indeed did find "Close-up One" contest as one of equal, if not greater, variety and value. Of the long-term intangible effects, a young boy or girl irrespective of his/her background can now dream of coming to the forefront.

Whether we call the young boys and girls identified in the process "idols" or anything else should therefore be of trivial interest. Even if a sense of commercial motive is traced in the organizers' spearheading a culture of creating idols, one can indeed locate a much more organized effort in these enterprises. Building on the organizational strengths of those endeavours, one can perhaps articulate an alternative model, more cerebral in content and form.

But, why search for a "cerebral idol"? The premise is set keeping our education system in view, which has witnessed much experimentation and intervention in independent Bangladesh era. This is despite the progress we have made over the past three decades -- in relative and absolute terms -- in universalizing basic education.

While enrollment has increased significantly, education quality at primary and secondary levels, especially beyond the confines of the metropolises, has regressed. A substantial body of analyses on education quality demonstrates this. Many of the urbanites who maintain contact with their ancestral roots or visit villages have seen traces of the decline in the education sector.

It is perhaps imperative to consider it from a different angle as well. Have we pondered why the once reputed "zilla schools" in the erstwhile district towns have virtually withered from the scene? Why scores of reputed Bengali-medium schools across smaller mufassil towns have embraced a similar fate?

These are the schools that produced generations of political leadership, social workers, and civil servants over the decades. A Who's Who of contemporary Bangladesh would eminently testify to this. More importantly, on the strength of having these schools at grassroots, where the qualitative difference between schooling in urban and suburban or rural areas was not significant, most first generation youth could make the leap to the national scene.

The state of affairs in schools like Armanitola School, Collegiate School and many more in old Dhaka and across former old district towns is a sad commentary. The more contemporary ones like West End School, Government Laboratory High School have also fallen off the track, compared to their original time.

For decades, these schools remained model schools for hundreds of other schools across Bangladesh. It would not be an over-statement to say that these institutions also demonstrated the state and strength of the vernacular language-based and local content-rich education at a given point in time. Same applies to once-reputed higher secondary institutions, e.g. Ananda Mahan College, B L College, B M College, Victoria College, etc.

Such are the institutions which form the back-bone for vast majority of Bangladeshi children even today. It is thus nothing less than an enigma to me and millions of other products of that mainstream schooling that how the State and civil society remain 'indifferent' to the virtual withering of our mainstream education.

Urban Bangladesh has however seen a sort of market correction to this vacuum in the growth of kindergartens and "English-medium schools" over the past decade or so. But, no society would expect a market correction in provisioning a public good (because of its very nature) as "education" by allowing private actors an uncontrolled play.

In other words, a Bangladeshi would not expect these "English-medium schools" to fill the void for the millions of Bangladeshi children. Clearly, the more delay we make in improving the quality of mainstream education, the greater is the likelihood of social conflict between the products of the mainstream and the minority English-medium schools.

Strikingly, our education system regressed at a time when elements of globalization made deeper inroads into Bangladesh. It is paradoxical that when innovative education tools, technologies and knowledge/information are much more available and accessible, the gap between the urban and rural schools keeps widening. Eventual outcome is progression towards an inevitable mufassil town - major metropolis imbalance. Same should hold true for public and private education institutions within the metropolises.

Some may argue that before we embark on much larger scheme of reviving the once-reputed-institutions, let us first begin with hunting the talents at the grassroots. But, if we expect that the talents will be able to sustain themselves while the crucial elements -- be that school or a much larger local surrounding -- lag far behind, then that is a wrong premise to start with. Experience abounds that once a talent is recognized, he or she needs to have a competitive or appreciative environment to further his or her potential. The young people need peers of equal or near-equal quality to interact and further hone their skills.

Similar arguments surfaced when Jawaharlal Nehru argued for establishment of the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institute of Science as centres of excellence in the 1950s in independent India. He further reasoned that a higher allocation of resources to these institutions should not be seen through the prism of excellence-equity mismatch. The argument put forward by his opponents that this was an elitist approach, he countered, was missing the point that the talents need to be groomed under one roof for greater common good. India's economic progress since then and contribution of the products of these institutions therein indeed speak for Nehru's foresight.

Many novel initiatives could be considered to break a near impasse in our schools. 'Bangladesh Mathematics Olympiad, being organized for the past few years, is one innovative intervention. It reminded me of "mental mathematics" that my generation used to have at the primary schools. Different forums are organizing thematic essay or debate competitions from time to time as well.

Let us however consider a different two-tiered proposition: a much broader competition in each district to identify young boys and girls prolific in vernacular language who demonstrate command over mathematical reasoning and other forms of reasoning ability. Ability in one form should not be mutually exclusive of the other. The ultimate purpose is to recognize the talented young people, at a much younger age group i.e. 812 years, on the basis of their ingenuity of thought process.

Once the talents are recognized, the obvious next step should be to let them further sharpen their skills in a continuing process. For that, we need to focus on at least one school in each district, to start with, as a centre of excellence. Providing a quality school in the locality is perhaps the first, but critical, form of support to those talented youth. They also need to be supported by making the community aware of the whole proposition of nurturing talents, hiring committed and enlightened teachers, building libraries in the locality. All these elements ultimately complement one another.

One illustration should be relevant. The Total Literacy Movement (TLM) launched in Northern Bangladesh district of Lalmonirhat in 1995 demonstrated that the making a person literate cannot be a one-off event. Following months of mass mobilization involving the civil administration and civil society, the district attained 100% adult literacy. Compared to many such initiatives, in various respects, the initiative was substantially innovative and suited to local context.

However, once the celebrations were over, in couple of months, a larger challenge surfaced: the neo-literates started demanding a continuous supply of reading materials to quench their thirst for reading! This was a sustainable solution was found by helping the communities establish small-scale community libraries.

While we embark on strengthening and reviving the schools, it is important to approach the whole subject with an open mind. If innovative measures are to be tested, let us accept those. Let us consider the extent of innovation that India, for example, has embarked upon. Last year, New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) realized that the hundreds of schools that they were running were not up to a satisfactory level.

In spite of having its in-house assessment, NDMC decided to have an unbiased, independent and reliable view of all aspects schools' performance. There were however questions over NDMC's collaborating with an NGO in school affairs. But, NDMC explained that their objective was to conduct school inspection, rather to bring out potential of the schools.

Accordingly, NDMC formed a partnership with a local NGO Ritinjali and asked the NGO to conduct an appraisal program "Avolokan." Last month, Ritinjali submitted the report of the first phase of Avolokan to NDMC which has underlined scopes to ensure greater accountability and transparency in schools.

If we call these initiatives out-of-the-box, let these be. Starting from curriculum improvement, teachers quality, physical infrastructure to ultimately creating a learning-friendly environment in schools, be it is MPO-funded or not, there are wide areas where such interventions are needed.

If we are sincere in reviving the true spirit of scholarship, it has to be a spirited compact between all the stakeholders: the local communities, local libraries, schools at the micro level, and the civil society and the state at the macro level.

Talents need to be recognized and nurtured in a continuous process. Little matters whether we label our toddler or young talent "Idol," "Little Hero," or "Role Model." What matters is our resolve to recognize scholarship and collectively support them in their efforts. Such hero worship is the need of the hour.

The writer is a member of Bangladesh Civil Service. Views expressed are his own.