A Clarion Call to Bangladesh’s Education System

Dear Bangladesh’s Education System (BES)

Even though we have been acquaintances since as early as my childhood, this is perhaps the first time I am addressing you. Over the years, you raised me, taught me numbers and letters and introduced me to the realm of formal education. It can be categorised as an unmistakable folly of mine not to write to you, for which opportunities are few and far between. So here is my long-overdue ode to you.

Can I begin by saying how extraordinarily accessible you are! You grant us free books to study, free schools to attend, and even prop up the economically vulnerable amongst us with aid and scholarships. Especially for our young girls in the far-flung places, in our remote hills and hamlets, where they were (and sadly still are in many cases) historically plagued by dogmas and social prejudices, you have opened doors to opportunities hitherto unheard of. Even though their previous generations of women received no formal education and were married off at a precariously early age, today’s girls are not only incentivised to complete their studies through school by various initiatives you undertook, but also outperform their male counterparts in awards and achievements!

It is only fair that I am true to your teaching: Honesty is the best policy, and accordingly, include my concerns and criticisms about you that often fall on deaf ears. While growing and spreading to more people in more places, have you compromised on the quality of education you seek to impart? Why is it that most of our predecessors, the results of the process you operated, now accuse you of failing to uphold basic standards? So much so that they have turned their backs on you and feel somewhat compelled and comfortable (despite incurring much more financial expenditure) to admit their children to international schools teaching in a foreign language and curriculum? Why is it that they claim you’ve deteriorated so starkly within a span of a couple of generations that you can no longer be trusted with the “future” of the children? Why have you ceased to evolve and cater education as per the fundamental requirements and expectations of general pupils?

How have we reached such saddening circumstances that education, which is meant to broaden our horizon, enlighten our mind and pave for us the path to the world of wisdom, is now being considered “scam”, “unnecessary” and a “waste of money” by the students of today, and leaders of tomorrow? While the rest of the world strives to reach further heights in the ever-expanding field of education, why are you invariably so determined to exacerbate the once exalted and hit new lows? How is it that our books have ratcheted up in numbers and sizes, but the quality, or lack thereof, has decreased, or worse, downright disappeared? 

Can I give you my two cents on the institutions: school, college, university, among others, that claim to bestow so-called “knowledge” on your behalf? There aren’t adequate teachers in most schools, let alone excellent teachers. Most of them pledge their allegiance to obsolete pedagogical methods. They exert a fake sense of superiority over their students solely based on their age, as if being born early and getting older is some accomplishment in and of itself! Not only do such individuals fail miserably to fulfil their responsibility as teachers, they also fail to exude any spark that inspires the students to study further, which ought to emanate from seasoned and experienced guides and instructors they boastfully claim to be. In many unfortunate cases, they are found to make below-the-belt remarks instead of the motivating ones. The tragedy continues to unfold when some seniors at many universities across the country step up to assume this role in students’ lives. The overwhelming environment in these institutions also overtly and covertly constrains creativity, instead of cherishing it. Jejune books and tedious methods of teachers are more than capable of wreaking havoc on a student’s career at any given stage. Pathetically, the shoulders of our learners are replete with the weight of both these burdens.

We live in such unprecedented times that the number of “educated-unemployed youth” is unprecedentedly high, owing to a lack of opportunities and skills. Over the years, widespread education outreach has stealthily contributed to infest widespread inequality. In the face of degrading national schools and curricula standards, while the few privileged classes have shifted to better alternatives, the majority were left stranded. Since the historical stakeholders and authorities involved went about with little to no accountability, they ensured the best institutions, at elite schools at home or reputed universities abroad for their immediate families, while the masses were held hostage in an overlooked, neglected and gradually diminishing system. You (BES) down the ages have not only degraded in quality but also erected more walls of division than ever before.

We must acknowledge that in the twenty-first century, education is not a privilege, but a fundamental right of every human. A system that propels discrimination and remains incorrigible to reform can do anything but deliver education in a dignified manner. You, BES, are ripe for an outright overhaul that bridges the existing gaps and purges the present and posterity of this cruel scar that fans the flames of abject, rancid discrimination.

As we mark the first anniversary of the historic July ’24 student lead mass uprising against an autocratic government, rooted in resentment arising from the then discrimination in government jobs, it is only befitting that you, too, are resolved for reform that transforms you to a lighthouse guiding every ship in the tumultuous sea, not beaconing the way for only a few and letting others to drown mercilessly.

Yours on a journey onwards and upwards,

Summit Hasan