Govt set to miss target of increasing TSR

The teacher to student ratio at secondary schools stands at 1:42, much higher than the objective of 1:30 by 2018, as mentioned in the National Education Policy.
The teacher to student ratio kept rising in the past five years badly affecting proper classroom teaching at the institutions as a lower number of teachers in crowded classrooms resulted in poor student achievement and failed to provide them with lasting academic benefits, said teachers and education officials.
The ratio of teachers to students was 1:42 in 2017, according to the draft Bangladesh Education Statistics 2017 prepared by the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, that came out on Tuesday.
Bureau officials said that the ratio was 1:37 in 2013, 1:39 in 2014 and 1:41 in 2015 and 1:42 in 2016.
The ratio was on the rise although the Education Policy 2010 aimed at reducing the ratio to 1:30 by 2018.
‘In 2017, teacher to student ratio stood at 1:42 although the Education Policy 2010 aimed at reducing the ratio at 1:30 by 2018,’ said Shamsul Alam, chief statistics division of BANBEIS, while making key presentation at dissemination workshop on Bangladesh Education Statistics 2017 at BANBEIS on Tuesday. 
‘Attention should be provided on teacher to student ratio issue,’ he said.
The education policy in 2010 said that teacher to student ratio will have to be progressively raised in phases to 1:30 by 2018. But the reality was different as teacher to student ratio actually decreased. BANBEIS data shows teacher to student ratio was 1.34 in 2014 and it decreased to 1:42 in 2017. 
BANBEIS officials said that it would be impossible for government to meet the target in one year.
Teacher to student ratio was an important barometer of classroom teaching quality, said teachers. In crowded classrooms, the quality of education suffers. For students, it was difficult to follow the course and teachers cannot give time catered to the needs of individual students, teachers said.
Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid while talking at the programme said that it was true that number of teacher was less than needed. ‘But we are recruiting teachers to reduce the gap,’ he said.
‘It is true that a teacher cannot give proper attention to each student when s/he needs to give lesson to 50 or more students in one classroom,’ he said.
Meanwhile, the draft of education statistics 2017 also shows that dropout rate at secondary level among girls is high and officials blamed early marriage and social insecurity for the drop out.
Although the enrolment rate for girls increased significantly in recent years at secondary level, their dropout rate continued to be higher than boys at the level.
The draft shows that overall dropout at secondary level was 37.81 per cent. The dropout rate was higher among girls at 41.52 per cent against 33.43 per cent of the boys. 
Education minister and BANBEIS director Md Fasiullah both said that poverty, early marriage and social barriers were some reasons behind high dropout rate of girls.
As per the draft report, there were 41,461 post primary educational institutions with 5.61 lakh teachers and 1.83 crore students and of the students 50.41 per cent were girls.
Md Fasiullah at the programme said that government was planning to provide an unique identity card to each student of the country. 

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net