Quality investment needed in education

As part of its plan to combat the pandemic, the government gave incentives to various sectors, including various industries affected by Covid-19. However, although the education sector also suffered huge losses and setbacks, it did not get as many benefits. 

Even the private educational institutions struggled to pay teachers. And online education could not be introduced everywhere. If some incentives had been allocated to this sector, we would have been much better off.

For students, the two hours that were usually spent going to school and returning home, even that time was saved during the pandemic. We needed a plan to help these young people, with their endless vitality but no work and no opportunity to go to school, to put this time to good use.

Forty million children could not go to schools or colleges during the lockdowns. If we could have given them free internet connection, then the government would have been able to explain to the youths of the country how valuable their time is to the nation; that this is the time for them to study, acquire skills, and become better citizens. But we failed to do that. 

However, the government took an important initiative by airing lessons for students through TV. But we were lacking there as well. The quality of teaching through TV could have been much better. And even when there is no Covid-19, measures should be taken to ensure that students across the country can benefit from similar teaching programs. 

We cannot provide skilled and experienced teachers in remote rural areas. But at least a million students would watch those lessons on TV if they learned that an experienced teacher would take the classes. 

And teachers could also benefit from this. Projectors are now available even in schools in remote villages. And regular TV teaching can continue there whenever time can be made for it. 

However, we have not been properly investing in education for a long time. Investment is only 2% of the GDP. It was only 4% in 1974 during Bangabandhu's tenure. Since then we have been within 2%. It is not enough and whatever investment that is happening in the sector also lacks quality.

Even so, we can increase productivity by being smart about how the funds are invested. For example, investing in teaching through TV, or in creating a high quality curriculum about which even if the teacher does not know a lot about but the student can understand just by reading the book. And if we want a better curriculum, it cannot be done by offering tenders with only three months of time because good teachers will never participate in tenders.

The 300,000 copies of the book we will print will have to be written by very skilled teachers. Experienced and skilled teachers should be requested to write a book for the nation. We can pay a lot of money to the author of the book as that will be sold for a long time. If it takes five years, the book should be written within that time; it should not be hurried. 

We will keep that book in circulation for 30 years as the purpose of it is to strengthen the foundation of our children. That aim will not change again and again. For example,  addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, etc. — these will not change. So why do we change the books again and again? Even after 50 years, we have not been able to produce quality textbooks. Rather, there are many mistakes in the textbooks, which is not at all desirable.

If three million copies of the textbook are printed, how accurate should the textbook be? When we were school students, printing was very ordinary, but there was no mistake in the textbooks. Now, despite the rapid progress of the printing industry, there are errors on every page in the textbooks, which says that we have no commitment to education. 

We have had 12-13 education commissions, none of which we have implemented. We have to turn this around. Our peers were Malaysia and South Korea, who have risen to the top with a lot of emphasis on education. Looking at those examples, we should also walk on the same path.

We got into trouble just by introducing creative methods, i.e., we could not do anything creative. The way the curriculum is being organised now, I just hope it goes smoothly.

But our previous experience does not say that we can execute such a large-scale project properly. This requires a lot of planning. I hope that those who are in charge of education will do it properly. But we have not had any significant success in this regard before.

The government should also look into the trends of distortion of history that are emerging in the new curriculum. This kind of distortion is not acceptable at all. Incomplete history should not be taught to children.

Teaching of partial history will never last. We know that as the government changes in every country, it can also happen in our country. No matter what happens in five, 10 or 20 years, the government could change.

It is by no means desirable if education takes a 180-degree turn with the change of the government. Irrespective of which party is in power, education should only move in the direction that ensures development of the country.

The development of our country depends only on the development of human resources, because we do not have any other resources. There are many people, so if we can transform them into human resources with education and skills, then who can stop our progress? 

At present, uneducated and semi-educated people are going to work in the Middle East. They work very hard to earn meagre wages and then send it back to the country. If we could send them abroad with some skills, they would be able to send home more remittance. 

Technical education should also be greatly strengthened. However, not only the students, but also the parents are quite apathetic about vocational education. Our mentality is such that one should take a degree from any university, even if they cannot serve the country with that degree.

However, in developed countries like Japan or Germany, technical education is more important. And many students go into technical education. If our youths also take this path, then they will be able to serve the country, as well as create a career for themselves. 

What the students study in our universities, can they use them in their professional life? There are countless subjects which provide almost useless knowledge for any profession. But a university degree is required, so blindly follow that path.

The author is an educationist and a retired professor of Computer Science and Engineering, BUET