The co-chairman of the National Education Committee 2009 and renowned economist Dr. Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad opined that we are experimenting with our education too much. He focused on thinking about the holistic development of our education first and then implementing specific things according to the plan.
Considering people’s reactions to our new curriculum, he emphasised an effective implementation process. He expressed these opinions at a discussion meeting organised by the Campaign for Popular Education on the occasion of the International Day of Education.
The new curriculum has already created several concerns among people, particularly guardians, teachers, and education specialists. Besides, due to the rapid and several changes in our education from time to time, a kind of instability has also been observed. It might be a good time to discuss if we are experimenting on our education too much, as Dr. Ahmad said.
Any changes in education should be made in line with the education policy. Bangladesh’s current education policy was accepted by the National Parliament in 2010, and it was expected that the government would take the necessary steps to implement the recommendations of this policy.
Unfortunately, we observed a reluctance or negligence in this regard. For example, the National Education Policy 2010 recommended extending the duration of primary education from five to eight years, which was overlooked. The government was also expected to allocate the necessary education budget to implement this policy’s recommendations; however, this was not a reality.
Therefore, it is evident that the government does not pay proper attention to the recommendations of the current education policy, and the new curriculum could be the latest example of ignoring the policy.
The education policy of a country holds the principles, essence, and spirit of the national constitution, long-term visions, demands of time, and people’s expectations.
Therefore, any change, such as the development of curriculum or textbooks, should be aligned with the education policy. In 2012, the National Curriculum Textbook Board changed the primary and secondary curriculum in line with the national education policy.
On the one hand, many recommendations of our education policy are still not implemented. On the other hand, many things in our education system that are not aligned with the education policy are being implemented.
The combination of both conditions creates a situation of unplanned environments in our education sector, which could have a long-term adverse effect on our society.
The respective authority might realise the necessity of changing a curriculum based on the change of time, demand, and global competition. However, changing a curriculum should not be a standalone process; instead, it should follow the suggestions of the education policy.
Our education policy has not changed since 2010, but the curriculum has changed twice. The question is: if the new government will make any change, small or large, to the education policy in the coming years, do we need to change the curriculum again?
Not all the changes are negative, and education policy, curriculum, and textbooks must be changed over time to meet the challenges of world competition. The new curriculum has some positive things, but if these are not aligned with the education policy, the changes could bring additional challenges.
We can remember examples of creative questions from recent years. The intention of the creative questions was to make the students capable of writing answers based on their analysis and creation instead of memorisation. The truth is that we did not see the changes in developing students’ competencies as expected.
It was also expected to reduce the number of guidebooks, a supplement to textbooks, but students are still heavily dependent on the guidebooks. Similarly, after implementing creative questions, we did not see any positive changes in spreading the coaching system or private tutoring.
For an effective and quality education, various factors must be worked on simultaneously, and a good education policy could guide this process. An up-to-date curriculum helps achieve quality education; however, all the changes should follow the directions of the education policy.
Our education policy provides several achievable recommendations and considers a synergy from pre-primary to tertiary education. We see the changes in our new curriculum at the secondary level; however, the changes at the primary level are yet to be implemented.
We have two ministries for education: the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education for pre-primary and primary education and the Ministry of Education for the rest of the education level. There should be a continuation and consistency in the curriculum contents for all levels of education. A lack in terms of this consistency is also observed. The media has reported some disunity in terms of implementing a new curriculum between these two ministries, which is not expected.
It seems that while the authorities are taking several initiatives to meet the need of time, these are not interconnected. A small change in an area could create enormous effects on other areas.
Besides, education is such an area that has a long-term impact; therefore, careful and well-grounded decisions must be considered before making any decisions. Otherwise, a good decision might not be ‘good’ in the end. A good policy could guide the entire new decision-making process, whether the decisions are large or small.
Therefore, we need to establish such a permanent education commission, and all the education decisions should be made based on that commission’s research and policy direction. This permanent education commission will continuously analyse the current strengths of our system, people’s demands, and the changes in terms of the world’s education, and will make both short-term and long-term plans.
Instead of frequent and rapid change, the curriculum needs to be made in such a way that it can serve the country for a long period, and small changes will be incorporated as and when necessary.
Anyone can make a list of good initiatives taken in the last 30 years to improve our education. It is also possible to make another list of failures of the taken initiatives, and both lists will be long. Any initiative without the guidance of the education policy might not bring positive changes.
Besides, an initiative could be considered an unplanned experiment that does not have a long-term plan or a well-designed implementation process. Besides, before making any decision, the respective authority should inform the stakeholders about the practical issues of the new changes and convince them of the positive things.
There are several challenges in our field-level implementation process, which also could be considered in advance. For instance, teachers should be prepared before implementing the new curriculum. Otherwise, we will have to take the bitter taste as we experienced earlier of the creative questions or Eso Nije Kori (Let’s do it myself).
We are experimenting too much with our education system. We need to focus on what we want to get from our education system in the next 50 and 100 years, and then we need to make our plan accordingly.
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