A clear sense of direction and strategy for the education system is lacking, as it has been under past political governments.
Primary school assistant teachers began an indefinite work abstention for higher entry-level pay.
The interim government need not be too apologetic for its record, but it would be a shame not to make the best of the opportunity history has bestowed it.
The primary and non-formal education sub-sector reform initiative is a positive but partial move that leaves major education sector concerns unaddressed.
Are policies and actions regarding preparing young people for work and livelihood influenced by myths and misperceptions about the problems and their workable solutions?
Now, the youngsters have embarked on a campaign to reach out to the people in preparation for forming a new political party.
Public and media discourse overwhelmingly favours the idea of a reform commission for education.
The education authorities under the interim government have decided to revert to the curriculum introduced in 2012.
Is there a good reason why the school year should begin in the first month of the Christian calendar other than that this is how it was done in the colonial era? In India, school calendar is a state (provincial) matter, but the year mostly begins in June.
Mark Twain reputedly said that God created wars to teach Americans geography. It can be said that God put Donald Trump in the White House to teach America how to protect democracy.
Does Bangladesh education need salvaging? The official narrative is equivocal. Most young children are in primary school. The system has expanded to comprise 40 million students, over 200,000 institutions, and over a million teachers. Girls and boys are equally enrolled in schools, a feat not achieved by many developing countries. We do need to work more on improving quality. So why is the despair?
The end of the pandemic is not quite in sight. Schools have remained closed for a full six months now since March 17.
The decision to recommend by concerned ministries to the government to scrap primary level PEC and junior secondary level JSC exams as reported in the press is welcome news (Daily Star, August 12, 2020).
On June 14, the ministry of education extended school closure, imposed on March 18 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, to August 6. Earlier, the prime minister had said the closure may continue to September.
It is disappointment again for the advocates of education who have been pleading for stronger public commitment to education. The new budget maintains Bangladesh’s record for having one of the lowest allocations in South Asia and among developing countries for education as share of GDP and of the national budget. Moreover, there is no sign of an education rescue and recovery plan to offset the impact of the pandemic.
We have to talk about the post-corona time, even though Bangladesh has not reached the peak in infection and deaths caused by the pandemic.
Four million students of tertiary education in Bangladesh—in over 5,000 institutions including public and private universities, affiliated colleges, and professional institutions—are in shutdown, which will continue until September if the situation does not improve.
Schools throughout the country, with some 3.7 million students and over a million teachers, are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The ongoing shutdown is likely to continue beyond the approaching Ramadan until the end of May. So what can we say about the millions of students, their learning and their wellbeing?
