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The country's educational institutions from primary to college level are set to go for a long vacation on the occasion of Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, the Independence Day, summer vacation and observance of a few other religious events. All government and private primary schools had their last classes before the break on February 25 only to resume on April 9 next. A 40-day vacation at a stretch for primary schools! Secondary, lower secondary and higher secondary educational institutions including madrashas, polytechnic institutions and colleges will enjoy a vacation each a little shorter by three to five days.
Long vacations in educational institutions are not uncommon in normal academic years but in Bangladesh, this is no normal time nor is the academic year. The first two months of the new academic year that begins on the New Year's Day is almost over but the learners are yet to receive all their textbooks. Primary and secondary educational institutions could not run in full steam because not only of the paucity of books on certain subjects but also because this is the time for extra-curricular activities such as sports, picnic and cultural activities educational institutions have on their academic calendar. Moreover, the Secondary School Certificate Examinations (SSC) will start immediately after the opening of educational institutions.
So, following an extended closure of educational institutions for more than a month, many of those will have no classes during the SSC exam. Disruptions of different kinds and nature including the unprecedented suspension of classes during the Covid-19, political upheaval and the introduction of new textbooks and curricula with the abolition of three groups of science, arts and commerce at the secondary level from class IX and then a return to the old group format within a year after the ouster of the former government have had an adverse impact on the learning process. Review and reprint of textbooks have not only delayed the distribution of textbooks but also affected the impressionable minds. Auto pass, brief academic curricula and public examinations on shorter syllabuses and in fewer subjects have left a serious learning gap for students.
In a situation like this, the majority of learners needed extra and intensive care for recovery of their learning losses. Now if the first quarter of the academic year ---for some more than a quarter on account of the SSC exams ---is lost to the casual approach to teaching-learning, the weaker base of students will get further weaker. Several of the current batches of students in different classes had serious foundational problems in learning. In a country where this foundational weakness is endemic, the Corona epidemic made the problem acuter. Educationists and experts in child education suggested extra classes for those young learners who had no family help or online facilities to make up for their learning gaps. But no such arrangements were made to help students to recover the learning losses. Its natural consequences were dropout from the learning process and forced child labour for boys and child marriage for girls.
Parents and guardians of young learners know it better. Thus highly concerned, the Guardian Unity Forum has made an appeal to the authorities concerned to cancel the scheduled closure in favour of continuing classroom teaching until 20th of the month of Ramadan. Even if running school is impossible, at least online classes should be arranged in order to keep learners in the learning process so that they do not unlearn what they have learnt. It is a belated appeal. Actually, no such educational institutions were scheduled to remain open after February 27. By this time all schools had their prior holiday notice issued and the vacation took effect.
So, the last option of online classes may be considered. But this option is unlikely to benefit those learners who need it most because they do not have access to digital devices. At this point the rich-poor and urban-rural divides have life-changing influences or condemn the underprivileged to perpetual wallowing in poverty, illiteracy, ill health and unhygienic living. Parents of affluent families can not only afford the digital devices for their young ones to have access to online classes but also hire house tutors to help bridge the learning deficiencies. Then, again, learners in urban schools which have better teaching staff and management compared with those of rural areas are fortunate to avail of a regular, disciplined and competitive educational environment. In addition to such schooling, they rush from one coaching centre to another and many of them also have their house tutors to help them prepare their lessons for examinations.
Whether acquiring knowledge under such an intensive system of education is possible, however, remains debatable because the system is mostly fraught with the misguided aim of scoring higher in examinations not learning the real knowledge. Notwithstanding this lacking, the genuinely brilliant ones do well in higher education. But the learners from poor families rarely have such opportunities. When newspapers carry news on students who conquered stinging poverty to claim a seat for medical or university admission but their parents cannot afford the admission fees, genuine talent shows itself. For the average students, overcoming the daunting poverty barrier is impossible. Here lies the greatest social discrimination. Are the architects of July-August uprising and the several commissions formed willing to focus on this issue for narrowing the gap? Education needs reform but addressing the existing discriminations in educational opportunities perpetuated by several of its streams and social divides is most crucial to establishing a just society.