Diverse pry curricula harm social harmony
Divisive curricula in the country's primary education are resulting in lack of cohesion in the society and also affecting the overall quality of education, say educationists and a development activist.
They viewed that the situation had led to domination of money in access to quality education – a constitutional right though – and created discrimination in the society.
At present, there are 10 types of primary schools and madrassahas that follow at least five curricula.
The educationists, who have long been advocating a unified curriculum for the sake of harmony in the society, said that the nation could not afford to allow such a discriminatory system of education to continue.
'Ideally there should be only one curriculum for all children to rid them of the present discriminatory system of education,' said educationist Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury.
'The standard of education is being hampered as there is no unitrack curriculum. Besides, disparate curricula create division in the society,' he said adding, 'But introduction of a unified primary curriculum and its implementation is difficult.'
The prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, on Sunday announced that her government had launched an initiative to move over to a unitrack curriculum for primary education.
Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Professor Maniruzzaman Miah told New Age Sunday that due to divergent administrations, there were 10 to 11 types of primary education in the country though the number of their curricula is not so large.
'The main differences are in the curricula followed by the two types of madrassahs [one follows the madrassah board's curriculum and the other is guided by the quomi curriculum]. Besides, there are Bangla and English medium curricula. The government should monitor contents of the textbooks, particularly of English medium schools, as it has been found that students are studying subjects contrary to our history and culture,' said Maniruzzaman who also headed an education commission in 2003.
Writer Muhammad Zafar Iqbal, who was also a member of the committee that drafted the education policy 2009, said that disparate curricula had already done much damage to the values and created division among the students.
'In the new education policy we have recommended upgrading of primary education up to class VIII and also suggested that some common subjects be made compulsory for madrassahs and general steams of schools,' he said.
Rasheda K Choudhury, a former caretaker government adviser, said, 'Money plays an important role in getting quality education. A guardian needs to invest more on an English medium school student but the investment on a madrassah student is far less and thus discrimination is created.'
She said there should be a single regulatory framework for harmony in the primary education system as disparate curricula were creating division in the society.
Syedur Rahman, a teacher at the BG Press government primary school in the city, said, 'We are trying to enroll as many students in the government primary schools as possible, but in most cases poor families cannot afford the expenses of the studies of their children. In contrast, students from well-off families go to English medium schools and such students get better education simply because they have money.'
According to government statistics, more than 1.62 crore students enrolled at 80,401 primary schools and equivalent institutions that offer education in Class I-V. There are more than 3.5 lakh teachers in the institutions. Besides, there are a significant number of students in unregistered kindergartens and quomi madrassahs.
About three million children in the country still don't go to school while 50 per cent of students who get admitted to class I drop out before completing five years of primary education, mainly due to poverty. http://www.newagebd.com/2009/dec/14/front.html |