Masum Billah :
It has been heard from time and again that the quality of education has deteriorated.
This discussion must come from the teachers first as they are the key players to determine the thing.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, we hardly hear such type of words formally from the teachers, even though some try to express it that remains confined to the classroom only.
We have several teacher organizations who hold various types of demonstrations but no such seminar we see arranged by them.
Being an individual of the world of education, any such seminar or arrangement makes me elated and I try to attend it at any cost as it offers manifold benefits both professionally and individually.
On 28 August receiving such an invitation as a speaker on quality education could not resist my temptation to hug it.
Seminars and workshops are an innovative and welcomed step towards modern education. Nowadays seminars in schools are encouraged recognizing its importance for students at an early age.
That was an extra point of my excitement to join it as school level students from various parts of the country along with their teachers attended it.
Good Neighbours Bangladesh, an international humanitarian development NGO brining good change for children and communities around the world, arranged it at Six Seasons Hotel, Gulshan, Dhaka when it completed thirteen such seminars on `quality education’ under their Community Development Program working areas with the objective of creating scope to talk about ensuring quality education in educational institutions.
750 teachers from 454 schools under the jurisdiction of 11 Upazilas and 2 Thana education offices, 250 students, 190 parents, representatives of 25 NGOs, 20 education officers of district, Thana and Upazila levels, 11 Upazila Nirbahi officers and 50 public representatives attended the seminars.
That really sounds an exciting effort as the rural level teachers truly lag behind in alternative ways to develop them professionally except reading the text and conducting the classes.
Talking and learning about new topic always encourage the students and teachers to explore new areas relevant to the topic that happens mostly through the participation of seminars.
Discussing about the relevant topics of the particular subject, participants tend to learn about the latest information and new skills related to the concerned subject.
I talked about the advantages, disadvantages of the new curriculum known as competency-based curriculum that I saw the audience listened with interest as it’s now a hot topic in the country.
The newly introduced curriculum and particularly its assessment that sees a paradigm shift from summative to mostly formative done through assignments, project works, observing their progress in the classroom and outside the classroom.
To assess the learners, teachers have been trained to use performance indicators and behaviourial indicators that I noticed teachers still hold vague ideas.
This area calls for more and more workshops and seminars both locally and nationally otherwise students will be the victims of such assessment as teachers seem not have transparent idea, rather they still rear vague idea.
Teachers’ roles in quality education in the fast-changing time of the 21st-century world and trans-language in primary level English classes on quality education were also presented by another two professors namely Harunur Rashid and Arifa Rahman.
The Chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) was present in the seminar as chief guest who also gave some valuable guidelines and tried to clarify the objective of new curriculum.
The Ex-Member curriculum, Primaryand the Director- Planning, DHSE remained present who also gave their valuable speech centering round quality education.
After the speaker’s sessions, a panel discussion was conducted where the participants raised questions based on quality education and shared the cooperation issue. Speakers gave answers to the participants.
National student assessment was introduced in 2006 to measure the achievements of primary level students that deserves appreciation.
However, to assess the secondary level students’ real skills no such attempt has yet been taken as their curriculum is still objective and content based except grade six and seven.
The students of grade three and five go through written tests on two foundational subjects such as Bangla and mathematics to assess their literacy and numeracy skills.
The Directorate of Primary Education has recently published the results of the seventh National Student Assessment (NSA) that shows more than 60 percent of Class 3 students and 70 percent of Class 5 students did not have the expected grade-level proficiency in mathematics.
Also, 51 percent of the Class 3 students and 50 percent of the Class 5 students lacked grade-level proficiency in Bangla. This result further sensitizes us to arrange more and more education seminar across the country.
What GNB wants to achieve through this quality education seminar that started from the root level through holding thirteen seminars involving the local teachers, students, education officials and demonstration officials is to create scope and connect teachers, students, SMC members, Upazila administrations and local elite persons to find ways to ensure quality education in educational institutions.
We do believe that this series of seminars will stimulate the discussion on the objectives of education and brining quality so that our future generation can face the challenges of the 21st century gaining the necessary skills of the time.
(The writer is ETAB President).
