Only 13 govt schools set up since liberation [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Only 13 govt schools set up since liberation

Local May 22, 2017

Successive governments established only 13 new government secondary schools and nationalised another 60 such institutions inside 46 years of the independence of the country.
The government’s lack of interest in establishing public secondary schools left at the mercy of private schools that increase fees every year without any corresponding increase in quality of education, experts said.
Since the liberation of the country, 13,018 new non-government schools were established taking to 19,508 the total number of such schools.
With the establishment of 13 new government secondary schools and nationalisation of another 60 since the country’s independence, the number of government secondary schools stands at 339, according to Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics.
The government’s apathy to establish government schools are hitting hard the poor as the private schools are commercial and education cost is much higher at these schools, said Dhaka University professor emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury.
Secondary education entirely depends on non-government schools. Educationists said that 97 per cent of total secondary schools were running privately and many of them were expensive and
increased fees every year adding burden on guardians.
Government schools, though they constitute 3 per cent of total secondary schools, especially those in districts, are most popular educational institutions for education facilities, quality education and low cost, guardians and students said.
The government took two projects in 2011 and 2012 to establish 18 government schools in Dhaka, Sylhet, Barisal and Khulna.
Project officials said that one school each in Dhaka, Sylhet and Khulna and two in Barisal was yet to be established although the projects were supposed to be completed in 2014
‘Education has turned into a commodity. People who can afford they can buy it,’ said educationist Serajul Islam Choudhury.
‘Many of the poor face a lot hurdles to meet the cost of education’ he said.
Students are compelled to get enrol at costly private schools in absence of government schools, said former education advisor to caretaker government Hossain Zillur Rahman.
Recruitment of teachers at private schools is still questionable and many schools lack proper education facilities, qualified and trained teachers, he said.
‘After the independence, we have established new schools. We are nationalising one secondary school at each upazila where there is no government school,’ said education minister Nurul Islam Nahid.
‘I wish the government could establish all schools at its own, but budgetary allocation, management is a matter of concern,’ he said.
‘There is hardly any country where all secondary schools are run by the government. We support non-government schools to construct building and classroom and pay salaries,’ Nahid said.
In Bangladesh, most secondary schools are established on private initiative while the government bears the responsibility to pay the basic salary in the form of monthly pay order on certain conditions.
MPO facility was introduced in 1981 and BANBEIS officials said that about 19,000 teachers of nearly 16,000 secondary schools were now enjoying it.
Government should think about scrapping the MPO facilities introduced as temporary measure for quick spread of education and now it should establish or nationalise the secondary schools to ensure quality education as the situation has changed, said Hossain Zillur.
Allegations of corruption in the MPO facilities are galore, the educationists said, adding that many school managing committees indulged in corruption while hiring teachers.
MPO system faces question of good governance, said Hossain Zillur, adding that as the schools authorities could not meet all other education costs, they had to charge huge fees.
There is huge difference of tuition and admission fees between non-government and government schools.
Monthly tuition of secondary students at government schools ranges between Tk 12 and Tk 15 and their admission cost ranges between Tk 1,500 and Tk 1,600.
At non-government schools, however, monthly tuition fee ranges from Tk 200 to Tk 2,000 and admission cost ranges between Tk 5,000 and Tk 15,000 or more.
Nazrul Islam, a guardian from Mirpur in Dhaka, said that he was compelled to admit his two children at non-government schools after finding no place for them at government schools.