Enjoyable education for children

In one of his speeches earlier, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman emphasized the need for creating an educational environment where children will learn singing dancing, painting and other art forms along with academic lessons. During his 17-year exile in the United Kingdom, he had an opportunity to see from close quarters what child education ought to be. After all, he is father of a daughter who has had her schooling in Britain. No one expects that the country's education will metamorphose overnight but now that the prime minister's cabinet is settling down, there should be a broad vision of how the primary, secondary and higher secondary education would shape in the long term. 

The interim government revoked the system introduced by the Hasina government. It reintroduced the three groups or branches of art, science and commerce instead of the single group for class IX and X. Although there were commissions galore in the early days of the interim government, it did not feel the need for one for education. But days before leaving office, the government hurriedly acted on some recommendations put forward by consultation committees formed following pressures from different stakeholders. Apart from reinstating primary scholarship exam, nothing remarkable came into being. Now the new government announces that the junior scholarship examinations too will be reintroduced. 

While the education reform under the previous government sought to do away with exams for students of the lower grades and emphasised assignment-based practical education, the reinstatement of the earlier formats does no justice to the growing need for making education an enjoyable pursuit with practical implications. If the previous government put the cart before the horse, this return to the old formats cannot be a wise decision either. 

Examination is meticulous evaluation of merits of students. But it is more important for students to learn what they themselves prefer. Not everybody will be a Bill Gates, a Jeff Bezos or an Ellon Musk or a Jack Ma. Computer science or Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) are not favourite subjects for every student capable of pursuing tertiary education. This is exactly where students' proclivity matters. 

Great philosophers, scientists, poets, writers, artists, musicians, dramatists and dancers would not have emerged had every talented student was herded into business and technical classes. Imagine if there were no Einstein, Beethoven, Mozart, Goethe, Shakespeare, Keats, Tolstoy, Rabindranath, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Shilpacharya Jainul, Begum Rokeya and men and women of their kinds, life on this planet would not be as charming and meaningful as it has ever been. In fact, with robotics and artificial intelligence taking over human tasks, people are losing their inherent inspiration for creativity. 

Today's young generation is being spoiled by electronic gadgets they are introduced to early in their lives. The motivation for learning something the hard way is minimised in the process. This is exactly where the education system has to be attractive and throw challenge before the young learners to be inventive in their own way. There is no point leading a child who is born with special interest in music or painting to disciplines like science and commerce. Spotting early talents thus proves most decisive. 

There are numerous instances of students from poor background making breakthroughs in the areas of science. If they were made to study business and commerce, the world would not benefit from their epoch-making contributions. Here the role of teachers is most important. Where parents are highly educated, there is possibility of indentifying the latent talents in their children. But in most cases, it is the teachers who play the role of both catalysts and mentors. So, it is profoundly important to recruit the right kind of teachers. Unfortunately, the teaching staff in most schools is far below the required standard. So whatever reform any government plans to introduce, the need is to recruit first qualified teachers with matching emoluments.

nilratanhalder2000@yahoo.com