Students revel in new NCTB curriculum, teachers and guardians not so much

Shuvrota, a student of class six, recently took part in the half-yearly overall evaluation, following the latest curriculum introduced by National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) for class six and seven, with a view to providing students with a more comprehensive education that prepares them for the challenges of the future. 

It was unlike any other academic examination Shuvrota had taken previously in her life. She was asked to submit assignment papers on different subjects to her teachers for assessment. But as the answers to every question were available in a very organised manner in her academic guide books, all she had to do was copy-paste them. 

She was rather happy with the process. "I like it this way, because it didn't put me under any pressure," Shuvrota coyly confessed. 

But her mother Sumi Arman begs to differ. "I don't know what good this new system has brought about, rather than giving my daughter the impression that studying regularly is no longer necessary. Nowadays, I can seldom make her sit to study," she complained. 

With nearly seven and a half months since the introduction of the new curriculum - termed as Competency Based Curriculum - having passed, The Business Standard reached out to all stakeholders to understand how it has fared so far. 

It turns out, neither guardians nor teachers are yet prepared for the new system, raising questions about whether the new curriculum was introduced too early, without proper planning or training of the teachers. 

While educationists are seeing many faults in the new system, the NCTB is yet to concede failure, and are rather aiming to introduce it in class eight and nine as well for the next year. 

According to the new curriculum and the teacher's guide prepared by NCTB, performance of students of the two classes will be assessed in two phases – one continuous assessment and another overall evaluation.

For the overall evaluation, there will be two exams; one after six months and another at the end of the academic year. 

For Bangla, English, mathematics, social science and science, 60 percent of the evaluation will be over continuous assessment, while the remaining 40 percent will come from the overall evaluation. For other subjects, students' performance will solely be evaluated on continuous assessment.

Such a competency-based curriculum is expected to help to meet the country's growing demand for skilled manpower in the private sector and address the growing unemployment problems.

Notably, students of class one also received new books this year according to a new curriculum, but they are not required to sit for exams. A new curriculum is likely to be launched for class two and three as well next year. 

Confused teachers

Meanwhile, many teachers are also not satisfied with the new curriculum. Especially in the rural areas of the country, most teachers are not yet clear about the teaching-evaluation process. 

"Just a few hours ago, a teacher called me over the phone and asked how to prepare the evaluation sheet," revealed Md Harunor Rashid, a senior assistant teacher at the Azim Uddin High School in Kishoreganj. 

According to him, the training given to the teachers was not adequate. While there had been online training sessions at the beginning of the academic year, he also trained many teachers in the district and upazila level offline recently, but not everyone was lucky enough to receive it. 

From every school, on average, two or three teachers received the training, and then they were asked to give in-house training to other teachers of their respective institutions. 

Rashid further pointed out that to ensure that a continuous evaluation process is being carried out, every classroom shouldn't exceed the maximum of 35-40 students. But in many government schools, even as high as 150-200 students are taught together, making it virtually impossible for teachers to implement the teaching-evaluation process properly. 

Currently, the average teacher-student ratio of secondary level in the country is 1:38, but for government schools, it is much higher. "Unless the teacher-student ratio is decreased significantly, the new curriculum will not meet its desired goals," he opined. 

Dr Md Abdus Salam, professor of the Institute of Education and Research at the University of Dhaka, blamed the NCTB for the lack of preparation before introducing this new curriculum. 

According to him, the country's education system was not ready for such a drastic change, and the teachers had not been given proper training either. While conducting a new research a few days ago, he found out that many teachers weren't still yet fully aware of the changes brought in the new curriculum. 

"From our schools, to teachers and guardians, no one was made aware of this [new curriculum] beforehand," he said, before adding, "everyone can be oriented only if you give a system enough time. But it is quite absurd to introduce new systems even before giving the previous ones a proper chance to flourish."

Shah Shamim Ahmed, an associate professor of the same institution, commended the new curriculum as a good approach, but also asked if the nation was ready for it. He claimed that the newly introduced curriculum is not a fully furbished one, but just a framework.

"The NCTB introduced it even before the policymakers were ready and had fully conceptualised it. Also, the schools and teachers were not ready either. You can't expect the teachers to deliver after just three or five days of training. And, of course, the guardians also don't know what role they have to play here. So it is natural that they would have a hard time coping with the new curriculum," he said. 

"When you demand a refined product from students, naturally they will resort to guide books where they can find ready-made answers to every query," Ahmed added. 

Too early to judge? 

Not everyone is so skeptical, however. Sheikh Shahbaz Riad, an associate professor of education at the Govt. Teachers' Training College in Dhaka, feels it is still early days to judge the success or failure of the new curriculum. "After the completion of one full year, we may come to a concrete conclusion whether it's been successful or not," he said. 

He added that while online and offline training had been given to the teachers, it's now up to them to point out the challenges they have been facing while implementing the curriculum. At the end of the year, once they inform the NCTB about those challenges, the NCTB will be able to take necessary measures to rectify them. 

Professor Md Forhadul Islam, the chairman of the NCTB, is also satisfied with the progress of the new curriculum till date. He noted that so far they haven't received any complaints from the students, as the students welcomed the new education system wholeheartedly. 

According to him, the problem lies with the guardians, who are used to seeing their children always study laboriously. They are yet to understand why their children don't need to study all day long and memorise everything like before. 

"But this is the main attraction of our new curriculum. Students no longer have to memorise everything to get good grades. They now have the opportunity to hone their creativity and learn everything on their own. So, I don't see any problem with the curriculum. Already, some guardians have also realised their mistake and appreciated our initiative," he said. 

Prof Islam claimed that teachers have been given enough training both online and offline, and the training videos are still available online for further assistance. "But it is unfortunate that many teachers don't have much interest in training sessions. They only attend these training sessions because of the compensation they receive." 

He added that they are all set to introduce the new curriculum for class eight and nine as well, and once again they will hold training sessions for teachers before officially launching it in the next academic year.