Article on Education System Final

8/2/2019 Article on Education System Final

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Evaluation of Bangladeshs Education System: IFD note

Bangladesh is one of those countries which are still struggling with lots of chronic problem though weare left behind of 40 years since liberation. If we conduct RCA (Root Causes Analysis), then few

causes can be readily available. But the areas where we went comparatively well by taking lots ofinitiative, did we get the optimum output from there? We can t say YES strongly in response to thatquestion. There are number of reasons we can put on the plate, but all are triggered from one grossreason and that is having lack of appropriateness in systems in which we are conducting our dailyactivities. For an example, education system of our country is one where we found lot of activitiesdone in recent past years but still unable to provide with optimum benefit which is the key objective ofit. Education is said to be the backbone of the nation. Nobody would have different opinion here. Atthe same time, hardly anyone would disagree that to provide education to people, it is important tohave an organized and balanced system where purpose of taking education can effectively be fulfilledand managed.

YES, I want to share with you my observation about our current education system with multiple formsor media and visible absence of synchronization among all these forms or media.

Lets start my own story which i am sure the same for most middle class belongers. I started myeducation in Bengali medium, since we had then generally two media of education- BENGALI andMADRASA. And ENGLISH medium it did exist but with very limited scale. Only highly affluent classof people in the city could afford English medium education for their kids. TECHNICAL (Karigori)medium is another one where students used to be taught with practical education to make themcompetent for easy and quick employment.

Among Bengali medium schools, there was huge competition to get admission into few governmentschools and well reputed private schools specially in town, more specifically in capital city Dhaka. Akid who is not even aware of his or her well and woe, is put in unhealthy competition and becomesunnecessarily aggressive to survive in the competitive world. A kid is given with the sense if you wantto survive well, you will have to fight facing the competition . Very naturally, the basic question that

used to arise in my mind quite often is Are we residing in a civilized society or still in savage worldwhere we need to fight to secure our position? Doesnt it indicate our failure to balance betweendemand and supply of quality educational institutions?

When that kid grows up, his or her stress for retaining in competition increases at even higher rate.S/he has to score well persistently so that s/he can get admitted to good college after school and togood university after college. I know competition will always prevail, since we are always ahead ingenerating population than managing that with all the necessities required for increased population.But there should be a bar in few issues that would otherwise impact normal flow of development.

Now I am just keen to say key changes in the education system in last ten years. In order to align withglobal standard or to avoid discrimination among students, our decision makers changed markingsystem from traditional scoring system to grading system. From 2001, we found national exams result

being published in grading system (GPA). Its an irony that parents took couple of years to understandwhat does GPA stand for and all the myth behind.We observed a clear absence of propercommunication of the change among masses. Now, of course, after 10 years, this system is wellknown to us.

No issue with grading system. But before changing the core standard of education how can wechange the evaluation process. Just think of the fact that our 80% people reside in rural areas, arethey ready to get accustomed with this grading system?

In the first release of result under new grading system, only few students got GPA 5.0 (A+).Then oureducation ministry thought that it is not the correct one then they changed again where GOLDEN A+is introduced. Those who get A+ in all courses are rated as GOLDEN (A+) holders.

Now, lets talk about our reading materials for courses. For ages we had English for Today the

name of the book for English literature. Previously we had very traditional way of learning English thatcould hardly enrich English knowledge of students. Later we got bit richer version of English book bywhich students were not allowed to just memorizing answers of few questions and thereby securing


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good score in the exam. This change was positive though a late initiative. But more important areathat needed to be looked at was to deploy more and more good English teachers who couldteach maximum number of students at a time.

Another quite interesting aspect which creates ultimate impact on the employment and thereby theeconomy as a whole, is the challenge that graduates confront to prove themselves fit for the job . With

facing all various hurdles in school and college level, when a student goes for higher education s/hefaces a clear distinct disparity. These disparities are largely classified in Public universities vs privateuniversities, Autonomous public universities vs National universities. All the public universities andprivate universities are mostly in english version due to reading material being written in english. Astudent, particularly from rural area, who is brought up with relatively poor knowledge of English, findsit difficult for him/her to cope with relatively harder English in higher education. Students coming fromgood institutions or from English medium can easily become pioneer for their standard knowledge ofEnglish. And the remaining fall behind for their sub-standard English knowledge.

Such transition of one step to another of the education cycle makes it really difficult and cumbersomefor an apprentice to cope in and eventually does not make him or her fit for competition in job market.But the story is even more pathetic of those students who neither get chance in autonomous publicuniversities nor have financial ability to afford private university education. They are the ultimate

losers. They still have the tradition way for higher education which is completely unique. They usuallytake reading materials in bengali version. After introduction of Bachelor of Business Administration,the traditional hons in business courses (e.g. Accounting, Management) has become obsolete. Butunfortunately these students in national universities are still with traditional format. They are, bydefault, the out of list candidates in the quest for good job, although they have good results. Wheremost of the companies need dynamic and fast business graduates for their future leadership, thesepeople have just the dream of reaching the door of these companies. But good news is that fewcolleges and universities under national university, started comprehensive B.B.A program like the onein other renowned business schools.

This is not the end; our education system is found with another inconsistent picture if we look at theeducation method or system in the best institution and other private institutions. University of Dhakawhich was used to be recognized as the brand for higher education across the globe, is not being

rated or valued as per its reputation. We see the disparity here also.

Business graduates from IBA (University of dhaka) and few private universities are highly valued bymost of the companies which are known as high payers in the market. Having the same degree,graduates from business faculty (University of Dhaka) are usually neglected. There are reasons, ofcourse.

Two primary reasons are responsible for this situation:

First, access to these business schools admission test module of IBA is such that a student needsto have the background of either English medium or science in Bengali medium. Students fromEnglish medium are having good hand on both English and mathematics since their format ofeducation is that much compatible. On the other hand, students from science in Bengali medium arenaturally good at mathematics. The concern is that business school is for those students who are

aimed for business education and equipped themselves accordingly from high school and collegelevel by the business oriented education which is known as Commerce group. But reality iscompletely different; these students dont get chance in IBA because their background doesntsupport the admission test module. On the top, the probability gets even lower due to very lownumber of available seats. And private universities, we all know that we are poor country. However,one may ask that is it required to get chance into IBA or any reputed private universities for theeducation? A student himself or herself can get become market compatible and instrumental by his orher own endeavour, right? This might be true for very low number of people with best merit, not for all.But our system should be backed by such a policy that it can be compatible for all. Where access,being made with faulty arrangement, is restricted, how can you prove yourself?

It is commonly known to all that business graduates need to be smart in terms of having goodcommunication skill and good attitude so that they can drive the business keeping good relationship

management with key stakeholders and clients and can be groomed up for taking the leadership ofthe organization in future. On this basis, it is almost established that business graduates frombusiness faculty are not up to the mark. But for sustainable growth of any organization, effective and


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efficient leadership is required and this leadership is the blend of both good communication skill andthe merit. I am not saying that all those from IBA and private universities are not on that mark. I wantto highlight on the presence of multiple standards at one platform, is simply unnecessary andmisleading. It is causing the waste of resources with total loss in productivity at every sphere ofeconomy.

In the same way, students from English medium find the same hurdle when they attempt to getadmitted into university of Dhaka. A student from English medium finds it very difficult to cope withsyllabus of admission test for engineering or medical education in university of Dhaka. The corereason is that they usually go through a very intensive and selective syllabus in O & A level. After Alevel, they get neither sufficient time nor the syllabus compatible for their background. As a result,almost all students either move to abroad or get admitted into private universities.

Now the question, what is the way around to get rid of this situation? We can always propose numberof mittigants but considering the present perspective, which is/are suitable for a country likeBangladesh. The loopholes that are already in place, can only be regularized with a planned solutionpackage. Good news is that we found a revised education policy announced in 2010 (Click here to

view the policy), which looks promising but still having few core gaps. Many recommendations areprovided by many scholars and intellects in various articles and journal. Dr Syed Saad Andaliib,Professor at Pennsylvania State University, wrote in one of his articles(click here to read thearticle) that Bangladeshs education policy must consider 7 Cs. These are: Commitment,Comparability, Clientele, Capacity, Coordination, Cash, and Communication. Each of the Cs ismutually exclusive and equally important for a compact and effective education policy. If we candevelop such policy and implement the same, we can eventually make a way for people to fulfil thepurpose of taking education by the way of dropping out unnecessary hiccup that are obstacle in ourdevelopment process.

WriterKhaled Bin Kamal, Manager-Operational Risk, Standard Chartered Bank, Bangladesh
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Article on Education System Final