From the colourful banners that are sadly distorting historical basics without the semblance of remorse, to school banners and public signboards getting Bangla spelling all wrong, no one seems really worried about the growing decline of Bangla usage. If it takes the court to issue stricture to FM Radio stations to put an end to debasing Bangla through affected pronunciation, the matter is more serious than what is perceived.
The post-liberation decision to make Bangla the only medium in schools was as disastrous as the more recent harebrained push to get near 100pc students to pass school and college exams. Standards were compromised with through the years resulting in an alarming decline in the quality of education added to by spill-over effect of a new generation of teachers that is badly equipped both in terms of knowledge and the ability to adapt. The processions towards the central Shaheed Minar would be more purposeful if some tangible steps were taken. Every speaker at every event centring Ekushey, pleaded for using Bangla in all spheres and sifting through past records would probably reveal similar statements made year after year. On show is the vestiges of respect alas not followed up by action.
Advocates of effective communications would have us believe that language that communicates is acceptable, thereby providing some sort of licence for incorrectness. The archaic school syllabus formulated by equally archaic minds and the emphasis on certificates and positions rather than knowledge and application of it has led to a rat-race not too dissimilar than that of the corporate world where objectives achieved are valued more than the means with which they were. We talk of technology as being the be-all and end-all of facilitator not realising that the new world of Artificial Intelligence (AI), properly introduced, will render a lot of learning useless in existing professions. The gap of standards between English and Bangla medium teaching is widening with more and more students heading for the General Certificate Examination that is focused on education and professions abroad rather than locally. Yet, lest we forget, our home grown education system was the one that our predecessors tackled, essentially without assistance, except for the dedicated teachers of their time. They are the ones that have competed equally with some of the best abroad and could hold their own in an intellectual discourse.
If one was to stand on the corner of Dhanmondi Road 27 in Dhaka, near Meena Bazar, one could be forgiven for mistaking the area as somewhere not in Bangladesh judging from the shop and establishment signage. Only one bank and a coffee shop uses Bangla, that too almost as an afterthought. Restaurant menus are usually unavailable in Bangla. With most other countries we as visitors would have to ask for English menus. The unkindest cut came from two statements made as seen on TV. The first was a series of interviews of university and school children who said they had come to the Shaheed Minar to pay respects to the thousands that had laid down their lives and the women who made the ultimate sacrifice for the mother tongue. The second was a foreigner who in her own way spoke Bangla from beginning to end and reflected sadly that our own citizens would go to a snack bar at the Ekushey Mela and order 'rice' instead of 'bhat'. If anyone really wants to know whose fault it is, a recent social media comment might just be the way forward. The new generation is blaming us, the older generation, for not teaching them properly. As with most innocents-they are correct.