Education, Our Ever-Distant Parent 

Dear “Education” – our second parent, 

We plead to you as your children — long raised under your care, disciplined by your rules, moulded by your quirks. After all these years, we can say, you provided – yes. But you did not listen. You  ensured our stomachs were filled with degrees and syllabi, but you forgot to notice our hunger for  meaning, value, and guidance. 

You increased enrolment rates in primary education from 62.9% in 2000 to over 97% by 2013. You  fought for gender parity, and in many cases, won. You provided stipends, free books, midday meals – as a father, you brought food to the table. You saw the need to bring every one of us under the same  umbrella. So, you built schools. You posted numbers. We acknowledge that. ^[1] 

But dear Education, when did you last sit down beside us and listen? 

You never asked why a classroom full of children often feels so empty. You never noticed how our  teachers — underpaid, untrained, and overburdened — repeat the same notes year after year without  ever being taught how to teach.^[3] You never asked why, even after finishing five years of primary  school, nearly half of us couldn’t solve basic arithmetic problems or read aloud from books fluently.^[1] You never stayed up with us the night before board exams, when the pressure of memorizing essays  from “Advanced Learners” crushed our ability to write our own words. You reduced our worth to  grades, shaped schools into factories, and made teachers hostage to test results. You say the  curriculum aims for “communicative competence,” yet the exams are solely demonstration of  memorization through writing; no room for thought, voice, or wonder.^[3] And so, we memorize. We  coach. We fear. We pass — but we do not grow.  

You outsourced your presence to coaching centers. You left us in the hands of private tutors, who  sometimes taught more in two hours than schools did in five days. Yet they could not show us a better  path of academic achievement other than the one you created, sometimes even making it worse. Is this  how a parent should care — from a distance, through others? And why should some of us flourish  because they have the money to afford tutoring? Yes, dear Education, inequality haunts your house. In  rural homes, the return on education remains uncertain. Those who live close to schools, whose  families can pay for tutoring — they advance. The rest trail behind. ^[2] 

You continued to introduce new curriculums, new contents, new infrastructures without giving the  means to utilize them – books without exercises, labs without quality equipment, libraries without  useful books, new methods without training. Dear education, we do not want to see flashy steps or  

immediate action. We want a properly functioning curriculum with all its elements. You do not have  to do everything from scratch following other countries. You just need to build on what we always  had – a simple curriculum – but with proper values, improved pedagogy, emphasis on learning &  adaptiveness, and adopting teaching with care. When our mothers shout at us, we slowly curl up into  small areas and forget to explore. Give us the opportunity to see the world with open eyes. This letter  isn’t written in anger. It’s written in hope. Because we still believe in you. We want you to listen – to  pave the way to a better destination: Prioritize teachers’ training and establish teaching as a noble  profession with good wages and benefits. Teaching is not just about content — it’s about pedagogy, 

empathy, and responsiveness. Make pedagogy a national conversation. Bring in the meritorious minds  of the nation to work in this profession. 

Secondly, exams shouldn’t feel like trials, rather reflect actual learning. Improve our exam system to  evaluate ideas, critical thinking, analytical reasoning; not just recalling. Then, introduce portfolio based assessments and continuous evaluations with a structure that both students and teachers  understand fully. A child who is scared to fail cannot truly learn. Introduce mental health support in  schools. Train teachers to care, not just teach. Train them to deal with toxic parents. 

Last but not least, quality of education must not depend on geography or social status. Schools should  not be battlegrounds of political interests. Make a simple curriculum that can cater the students in a  cottage in the farthest village to the ones in the high-rises of Dhaka. Make a good governing body in  the local levels to monitor the activities of schools and assist them in the shortest possible time.  

Don’t just give us blank hope – create a real timeline and proper planning to implement each of these  step-by-step. 

Live up to it. Don’t just raise us. Raise us well. 

With hope, 

Your Children,  

who want to Learn, not Just Survive