Education is a basic fundamental right that all human beings are entitled to, and it is crucial for the growth of any country. It must go hand in hand with economic development of the country, if the country has to progress and overcome the many obstacles in its path on its way to a well-rounded society.
We know a lot is being said and done about education around the world today. The focus of this article is on the quality of education in South Asia with a bird's eye view on the steps taken by Bangladesh to improve the quality of education in the country.
Much has also been written and spoken of the system of education in South Asia with special reference to the quality of education in Bangladesh where the focal point and reference has been on SDG4, (Sustainable Development Goals) in education. Their key focus has been on pre-primary education, children, impact, infrastructural facilities and the learning environment. Pre-primary and Primary education is one of the most important and basic needs, in various stages of education where the government of Bangladesh has been trying with a fair degree of success, to ensure quality education to all its key stakeholders; namely children. This is as part of the fulfilment of the commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) by 2030.
The Prime Minister as well as the Bangladesh government have been very confident and passionate regarding the role of the SDGs. This commitment and enthusiasm of the Prime Minster is keenly reflected at the various policy levels.
According to a local website called Social Watch, in Bangladesh the highlights of SDG4 are to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all by achieving a hundred per cent enrolment rate for primary and secondary education. They also believe that to ensure quality education at primary, secondary and tertiary education the percentage of the section reaching grade 5 is to be increased to hundred per cent from the current eighty per cent.
Despite all the good work done by the government, there are studies that show that in government schools in Bangladesh, there still is a lack of infrastructural facilities, funds, number of teachers, proper teacher training facilities and teaching materials in proportion to the number of students to provide quality education properly. The government and concerned authorities have been trying to combat these problems by attempting to increase facilities for a good teaching environment at the pre-primary and primary level.
A lot of good work has been done and continues to be done on the quality of education by the government of Bangladesh. Reports say that the government's plan envisages improving the quality of education while laying importance on various areas lacking in it.
In this regard, along with the above mentioned areas that the government has been working upon, the need of the hour is Teacher Training Education. This is the only way to help students move beyond the barriers and challenges to move ahead.
Over the last decade, Bangladesh has made considerable strides in expanding the bandwidth to include access to education for all. Primary and Secondary education is free in public schools where the students are provided with every facility that is needed to ensure good quality education. Teacher Training programmes, and parents' engagement go hand in hand to help teachers deliver distance/online learning so as to use it as a platform for teachers to change the way they teach in different grades. This became the pivotal point during the Covid Pandemic, where learning at home was largely the medium of instruction to provide good quality education.
To this end, teachers are appointed on merit, qualification, and experience. They are also being trained with the central focus on Language and Mathematics. University teachers are also being assisted and encouraged to carry out research. The benefit of this is that the standard of education is improving. In a country of over 18 million primary school students, Bangladesh has approximately 98 per cent of children of primary school age enrolling in school. A well-deserved kudos to the work the government is doing.
Having said that, the focus of quality education must also be on the curriculum and its structural objectives, which still follows the old run of the mill traditional norms of instruction-- rote learning and memorising. Teachers need to be trained to construct curriculum based on competencies of the learners, where the objective must be to train students right from the primary and pre-primary level to the graduating class. This should be the chief aim of education. This can only be achieved through what the world today is moving towards -- CBE (Competency Based Education).
An easy say but no easy task to follow, especially for a country fraught with poverty and the very real problem of huge numbers in classrooms. To be able to make that change, teachers must be given intensive training and the infrastructure to produce a system that will take the quality of education up, by not a notch but by a huge margin.
The government of Bangladesh is making a huge effort in trying to achieve this aim in the coming years. A task that is already well on its way to fruition.
Here one must mention Edudevs, a school of inspired teaching and learning that is expeditiously and assiduously working towards the realisation of Sustainable Development Goals 4, through its skill-based development programmes for 21 St century educators and youth.
In conclusion, an education policy that targets the poor and socially disadvantaged is what quality education to all children, is all about. And under the able leadership of the Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and with some help from the UN and its partners, Bangladesh is working towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals including SDG4 in quality education. Organised and updated information is needed on a regular basis to give more precision to the SDG4 movement to be able to increase efficiency in the Quality of Education. This will enable easy monitoring of the progress in the achievement of the SDGs by 2030, making it a reality.
Devyani Kapoor is Founder and CEO - Edudevs.
