Remember the time at the tea stall when that annoying 'know-it-all' uncle kept going on about the quality of education of our country? We all have been there. The debate over the issue of education quality in Bangladesh pops up on a regular basis. However, one of the questions that need to be addressed is whether NCTB (National Curriculum and Textbook Board) English standards are sufficient for higher studies or not.
It is often seen that a number of students consistently fail in English in board exams and university entrance exams. Although this phenomenon is seen all over Bangladesh, students outside Dhaka are mostly seen facing problems.
"I think there is a stark imbalance in the quality of education throughout the country. The teaching pattern revolves around the centre of this problem. More teacher training programmes should be conducted so that we can improve our teaching method on a regular basis for better catering towards the needs of students."
Just as he believes in the significant role of teachers in this respect, he also emphasises the students to identify their lacking to work on them. "After identifying the issues, s/he can reach out to the teacher. Thus, it will be easier for the teachers to dissect the problem and advise necessary steps to improve."
Being a student of International Relations at Bangladesh University of Professionals, Sumaia Binte Islam is tied to reading academic articles and journals. She says there are academic terminologies or keywords which pose challenges to anyone. However, it becomes difficult to cope with the vastness of the English materials of higher studies, because the problem revolves around several dimensions.
"First of all, the NCTB structure creates a culture of frantic mugging up compositions or applications before an exam. The main objective of the curriculum tends to tilt towards the bookish aspects of English which blocks the mind mapping for any creativity. Secondly, the syllabus fails to bring out the aesthetics of language. So students lack inspiration to improve this language skill. Finally, there is no real-life implementation of the syllabus," Sumaia states. "There isn't enough emphasis on speaking. As we aren't native speakers, there always exists a gap between thinking and putting it into words."
Sumaia mentions how providing breathing rooms for creativity can change the scene and make the subject more interesting to the students to expand their vocabulary for paving the way to have a good command over the language.
In Bangladesh, the significance of English at the university level suddenly increases. This paradigm shift hampers the learning process of a student. How can it be possible for a national curriculum student to have a strong foundation provided that there always exists a lack of growth in the learning process from childhood? In terms of primary level, the English textbooks contain passages that contain some basic level contents. The same pattern is followed at the secondary level. As a result. the stitching of language skills of many students can't overcome the limitations.
Mahmuda Islam Suma is another student of BUP who echoed Sumaia. "Standing in the middle of my tertiary level education and from my experience, I don't think NCTB English is sufficient for higher studies at all. I had to go through a hard time in the initial phases of my university life to grasp the materials as the primary and secondary level of education didn't provide me with enough scopes to improve my competency."
Being a lecturer at the Bangladesh University of Professionals, Shamrir Al-Af's life is intertwined with students. He thinks that the repetitive question pattern of the national curriculum along with the memorisation practice of selected paragraphs and essays fail to address the underlying problems hounding the structure of the syllabus. As a result, students often tend to be confined in the orbit of exercising amateurish level English and can't splash colours on their cerebral canvas for analytical thinking.
"I think most of the students feel alienated in terms of dealing with the vastness of English materials at the university level because there is a stark difference among the outlines of the primary, secondary and tertiary level of education. A gap in vocabulary knowledge always lurks like a haunting scar and a lack of critical thinking ability makes it difficult to tackle higher studies.
Shamrir, however, brings an important point mentioning how the structure should be broadened to expand the spectrum of this language. "It should add new features or dynamics to prepare the students for what type of reading or writing they would face in university life."
The writer is a student at the Department of International Relations at Bangladesh University of Professionals.
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