Urban govt pry schools largely deserted

 

Urban people appear to have lost their interest in enrolling their children in government primary schools and have become more dependent on English-medium, kindergarten and non-government schools for their education.

By analysing Directorate of Primary Education’s annual census reports and talking to parents and educationists it was found that the urban dwellers commanding greater earnings showed little interest in enrolling their offspring in government primary schools, particularly for the sorry state of their infra-structure and unhealthy environment which they think cannot ensure quality education.

Dhaka WASA constructed deep tube-wells on the land of many government primary schools in the capital while the city corporations placed dustbins, developed kitchen markets and even bus stands in and around many government schools keeping no scope for the pupils to play or hold assemblies.

There is no water supply or toilet facility at many public primary schools in the capital, such as Samajik Shikkha Kendra Government Primary School on Bailey Road, Muslim Government Primary School on Lal Mohan Saha Street and Bangla Bazar Government Primary School on Pyari Das Road.

The students of different classes were also found attending classes in the same classrooms in these schools for space constraints.

Teachers said that they used toilets at nearby schools or residential buildings in case of emergency.

Primary education ministry officials noted that they ran such schools as they had demand among the hard-core urban poor living in those school areas.

Of the 342 government primary schools in the capital, they said, only 109 are located in Dhaka North City Corporation area while there is no government primary school in Uttara, Bashundhara, Baridhara, Banani, Adabar and many other newly developed areas of the capital. 

All the 342 schools run double shifts compromising the teacher-student contact hours and satisfied with their pass rates in the Primary Education Completion examination, officials and teachers admitted.

Teachers of many public schools are not capable of preparing question papers for the exams of the students and hence such schools charge fees from the students for purchasing question papers for terminal exams and model tests from the Thana Primary Education Offices, parents said.

And most of the country’s 65,626 government primary schools are located in the rural areas and at the upazila level where the English medium and kindergarten schools, particularly in the rural areas,

have not yet become commonplace, educationists said.         

Educationists and economists also said that the distribution of schools indicated that the poorly managed government primary schools had little demand among the rich and middle-income people in society who could ‘purchase’ better education provided at the English medium or nongovernment schools.   

 ‘The country’s education system is now in the hands of “education merchants” because of the wrong government policy and negligence by the ruling class,’ Jahangirnagar University economics professor Anu Muhammad said.

‘The rich and higher-middle class people, not more than 10 per cent of the total population, provide their children  with education at expensive institutions, coaching and guidebooks for better results which parents of many talented students from the poor class cannot,’ he said.

‘But, even in the rich countries uniform education is ensured in all institutions up to Grade XII,’ he added.      

As the ministers, bureaucrats and the rich people do not send their children to the government schools so they need not bother much about the quality of education in the public institutions, Anu went on.

‘It’s not the quality but the large number of students and “good results” in the public examination that are the only concerns [for them],’ he said. 

Though the pass rate in the PEC exam stands over 90 per cent, including a significant number of examinees securing Grade Point Average-5, the National Children Assessment Report, released in February by the World Bank in Dhaka, revealed that 65 per cent of Class III students could not read Bangla while three in four Class V students could not solve mathematical problems of their class standard.

The DPE-published latest edition of Annual Primary School Census 2018 shows that the total number of government primary schools in the country is 65,626 while it was 64,301 according to APSC 2016. The number of kindergarten schools across the country in APSC 2016 was 20,661 but there came 3,702 more new such schools in the next two years and their total number stood at 24,363 in APSC 2018.

During the period, the national budget for the primary education ministry increased from Tk 16,848 crore to Tk 22,466 crore for providing free education at the government primary schools, stipend of Tk 100 to each student along with several other benefits.   

But still parents, especially in the capital, said that they preferred to send their children to English medium and non-government schools located in posh areas instead of the nearby government primary schools, except for the model primary schools at the upazila headquarters and the experimental schools attached to the Primary Teachers Training Institutes.

Explaining the reason for not sending her child to nearby Madartek Government Primary School rather to a kindergarten institution a kilometre away, resident of Madartek neighbourhood Nargis Akhter said that one needed to go to the government school through a dirty kitchen market and pupils were found roaming outside the school compound unattended and hurling abusive words at each other.

‘The school’s PEC exam result is also not good and the school authority forces children to clean benches, floors, sometimes even washrooms on Thursdays,’ she said.

‘Even the kindergarten school is not good though expensive. So, I have arranged extra coaching for her so that she can enrol in a reputable high school where she can study up to higher secondary level,’ she said. 

The DPE’s APSC 2018 and APSC 2017 reports did not make comparison between the primary education completion results of 25 types of primary schools existing in the country.

But the APSC 2016, based on the PEC exams held in 2015, showed that the pass rates in the non-government and kindergarten schools were higher than those of the government primary schools.

Only the primary schools attached to government high school had 100 per cent pass rate.

‘Though those having bachelor and master degrees are appointed as teachers at the government primary schools, they lack motivations to [properly] teach the students for different reasons including no opportunity for promotion and crisis of dignity [in society],’ said KM Enamul Hoque, deputy director of Campaign for Popular Education, a well-known coalition of education NGOs in Bangladesh. 

Even the thana education officers just monitor the administrative activities, not the classroom activities, he said.

BRAC university professor emeritus Manzoor Ahmed suggested reformation in the rules of business of the education ministry and primary education ministry for enhancing the quality of primary education.

‘One ministry should deal with the institutions up to Class XII while the other with only higher education,’ he offered. 

State minister for primary education Md Zakir Hossain said that he was very sad to see the sorry state of the government primary schools such as Samajik Shikkha Kendra Government Primary School, adding that they would undertake a beautification

project for all the government primary schools in the capital.

The ministry’s secretary, Md Akram-al-Hossain, said that more schools would be constructed and more teachers and office staffs recruited soon for ensuring quality education.

The thana education officers will also be trained for monitoring classroom activities, he said.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net