Several newspapers have reported that the government has taken a new initiative to employ teachers at the secondary level, providing them with teacher training before joining the job through a special project named the ‘Professionalization for Enhanced Learning Project’.
Currently, teachers usually receive in-service training, which significantly disrupts learning, as most of our institutions experience teacher shortages. Ensuring pre-service training would offer several benefits.
First, teachers will be familiar with the pedagogy and strategies for working with young learners, as well as master the subject and teach it to students. Newspaper reports have highlighted this as a new government initiative, but I want to say it is not new, as I have been advocating for this for a long time because students suffer a lot when teachers are invited to receive training through different government projects.
If teachers could receive training before entering the job, they would gain basic teaching knowledge and learn how to deal with young learners, quick and slow learners, and difficult students. These things remain unknown to teachers who start teaching in the classroom just after graduation or a master’s degree. Teachers’ Training colleges in the country have not received trainee teachers for the last several years.
If teacher candidates must complete training before applying for a job, graduate students would pay for their B.Ed./M.Ed. degrees at their own expense. In that situation, the government would save a huge amount of state money used for teacher training. Finally, we can expect a better educational environment, as teachers will start teaching as experts. That means quality education would be possible.
Training is essential for professional development not only for teachers but also for other professionals, but not all professionals face the same situation. The armed forces must continue their practice even when they are not regularly involved in war. If they are engaged on the battlefield, they don’t have time to receive training when they return or withdraw. Instead, they learn new techniques and strategies on the battlefield and continue the war accordingly.
If they come to the training centres and stop fighting, it means they are likely to embrace defeat. Teachers’ battlefield is the classroom. If they leave the classroom frequently for training, they will embrace defeat, and students’ learning will be further hindered. Similarly, to drive a car, one must receive training first.
After training, one starts driving, gains experience, and becomes an expert driver by driving for a long time. When he/she is taken from the car to offer training, his/her driving expertise will decrease instead of increasing.
The ’Professionalization For Enhanced Learning Project’ has been proposed to offer training to those who want to be teachers, and this type of opportunity does not exist widely, even though some graduates do B.Ed. or M.Ed without trying to achieve any targeted objective. However, before entering the teaching profession, teachers should have professional knowledge, experience, and mental preparation.
So, the project plans to offer opportunities to the candidates willing to enter the teaching profession. Under this model, as a pilot activity in five institutions, pre-service training will begin, and in-service training will continue. The existing training includes ten courses; the new project proposes introducing another ten.
When a project proposes introducing pre-service training, it raises doubts about its true objective and likelihood of success. It is not necessary to introduce a project for it. If you require candidates to have prior training, such as B.Ed. M. Ed. or similar, the candidates will automatically do it of their own accord.
This will help develop their professional skills even before they enter the job. It will also prepare them for teaching. Government money will be saved. Students and the education field as a whole will benefit. The importance of teacher training colleges will increase. Better private teacher-training colleges will also be revived, as many are currently in a moribund state.
What do we experience today? Government training continues year-round through the established system and various projects. Nevertheless, paradoxically, the quality of teaching, students’ response, knowledge acquisition, and overall learning outcomes are gradually declining.
In this case, how rational is it to introduce more and more projects? When the government cannot nationalise education because of a financial crisis, do we plan to take up one project after another? Through these projects, how much has our education developed? If we honestly look at the picture of education, we get frustrated.
This year’s HSC results show once again that 52.12 per cent of students passed, with the highest number of students failing in English: 3 lakh 12 thousand among around 6 lakh students who passed. What is the effect of so many trainings, so many projects? Why does this happen, and why does such a plan still come to mind when the state-level quality of education is this?
Passing in English is not very difficult, as all the test items are designed only to award marks to students. They used to include gap-filling, very short answers, and broad-type questions worth 6 and 12 marks, respectively, but now they are reduced to 1 and 2 marks. Other items just add-l or -ly, or change the given verbs, etc.
Even if a student does not know what to do, he/she can pass. Despite this, half of the students have failed in English, which gravely reminds us of the entire corroding education system. ICT is another subject that has faced almost the same situation, even though we spent a huge amount of state money to train many teachers in ICT.
We ignore these pictures of education. But why? Can we afford to ignore these facts? The government does not hesitate to spend millions of dollars on education by planning different projects, but it never considers nationalising education. Nationalising education could have allowed the state to bring teachers under a systematic process.
We do not want to pressure the government by citing financial constraints, but when we see it spending money unnecessarily on different projects, we should demand nationalising education. That would be far better than spending money on projects and extending benefits mostly to bureaucrats and politicians, not teachers or education!
About the Author
Masum Billah works as the President of the English Teachers' Association of Bangladesh (ETAB), Dhaka, Bangladesh. He previously worked as an Education Specialist at BRAC, an international NGO in Bangladesh.