Getting educational perspective right  

The country's education is mired by professional aberrations and criminal practices. So, it is not unusual that both laymen and educationists are concerned about the future of education in this country. Even the most visible ills education suffers from have been correctly diagnosed. Some prescriptions have also been put forward for curing the ills. But how to go about the business seems to elude all including the education ministry.

For the sake of convenience, let's leave problems facing higher education out of the deliberations. The focus may be directed to education up to the higher secondary level. This is because of introduction of a number of formats, guidelines and evaluation system of examination scripts. First, the introduction of grading system instead of positions and divisions for successful examinees was radical enough. So were the structured question papers. Following this, two more public examinations -one primary school ending and the other for class VIII students -are now being held.

Now how all such moves have vitiated education is there for everyone to see. The education minister does not quite know how to face the problems posing to be beyond remedy. Not always does he talk sense. His latest endeavour to pass the buck on a few teachers for leaking question papers of public examinations only points to his helplessness. Then he sounds an empty threat of taking stringent action if anyone is found involved in question paper leak. Further, the education minister decides to close all coaching centres three days before the commencement of a public examination.

Instead of thinking in terms of taking tough measures against culprits who would leak question papers, the minister would do well to take tough measures before so that the source of question paper leak is well secured. As for closure of the coaching centres three days before public examinations, what the minister wants to achieve is hardly comprehensible. Closure of coaching centres cannot prevent circulation of leaked question papers once someone has obtained those with the ulterior motive. By the way, are not coaching centres legally banned? Then how do they operate with their advertisement boards and banners screaming from every vantage points and corners for drawing attention of guardians and students?

Now the prime need is to analyse why question papers get leaked and coaching business continues unabated. Of late there has been an epidemic of question paper leak. It is because society is fast becoming morally bankrupt. If teachers are involved in it, it is not for free. They can make more money at a time than they would have earned in their lifetime. It is an opportunity they do not want to miss. The mentality of most people today is to take the short-cut -no matter legal or illegal -for becoming rich. Teachers are no exception to this trend. A good number of them operate coaching centres and earn fabulous sums of money without ever bothering about income tax return. When qualified teachers started neglecting their classroom teaching, they also started betraying their professions. A small compromise leads to bigger ones.    

Evidently, the many problems now facing education are inseparable from one another. Under the education system now pursued, coaching business is inevitable. If coaching becomes so indispensable for students, the best option is to look for the reasons behind it in the system. Clearly, today's craze is for grade point average (GPA) 5. Both guardians and students are worked up so much that they would go for anything and everything in order to obtain the magic mark 80 or GPA 5 score. Now the coaching centres work as factories where students are bent to a certain shape so that they can score that magic number in a subject/subjects. They are taught techniques and guidelines for the purpose. Creativity and originality of students are relegated to the backburner. The question of ethical and moral lesson alongside humanitarian education does not arise. Only a special breed can avoid this stereotype of orientation.

Coaching has invaded village schools as well. But in large parts of rural Bangladesh, teachers are not qualified enough. Many of them would not have obtained GPA 5 even if they sat for secondary or higher secondary education. So, the disparity between village and city schools is widening. Similarly, the streams of education in the country are so dissimilar that there is arrangement for inherent disparities between and among them. But if the general education is in question, the authorities themselves are to blame for the situation. The structured questions or the multiple choice question types were introduced in order to give examinees the advantage of obtaining almost full marks. The coaching centres are making the most out of it.

More than 500 teachers of government schools in the city have been listed for transfer because they were found guilty of operating coaching centres commercially. The veterans among them would hardly be affected by this, because they may opt for voluntary retirement and do the coaching business as usual or even better. This will not solve the problem.

There is need for placing the learners at the centre of education. Classroom teaching has to be enough and if there are laggards they must be taken care of after school time under expert supervision. So the education system warrants thorough reform. Quality teachers have to be appointed with higher remuneration with a rational increase in the education budget.

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