Populism destroying education quality

Faruque Ahmed

The government’s populist policy in education is simply destroying the country’s quality of education. Recently it has assumed an anarchist dimension raising questions that if such policy is going to be anyway beneficial. This can at best produce the young generation with numerous certificates in hand without proper education incapable of handling their jobs either in the government or in business.

The adverse effect of such faulty education is seen all over. Students are getting more involved in extortions and violence now even beginning in schools, colleges and universities than devoting time to studies. They believe in easy moneymaking business by way of extortions or eliminating rivals in campus politics. Politics is what brings quick fortune while proper education is boring that needs discipline and devotion.

Incentives to be party cadres
Fear of study always works in students but the state makes the system easier with manifold incentives to keep them engaged to studies. But now if the government itself offers more incentives to students to be a dreaded party cadre and violent activist at the cost of education, the system is bound to collapse. There is no doubt that the social-fabrics is starting to melt now.
We witness a rise in the rate of passing out in public exams in recent years from the primary school certificate exams to junior secondary certificate, secondary school certificate and at higher secondary certificate exams. The passing out rates at all such exams are around 90 percent and even closer to hundred at lower primary level.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid very often claim that the quality of education has improved tremendously in the recent years and the higher pass out rates in public exams is nothing but the natural reflection of this seeming improvement which is taking place at all levels.
Meanwhile, the number of GPA-5 scorers and gold category students in SSC and HSC exams has surpassed all records. Most schools in capital Dhaka and big cities now often claim that all of their students have secured GPA-5 grade; that is the highest grade except a few left to the lower grades. But the reality is different as it often reported when those same students go for competitive tests.
The World Bank raised the issue in a report published recently. One of its observations has pointed out that 75 percent of exceptionally successful students in such public exams is not proficient in Bengali, the mother language and poor in English while their performance in Mathematics is even lower. It further said 80 percent of GPA-5 scorers failed to secure the minimum pass number in admission tests in Dhaka University last year.

Low teaching quality
The situation is the same at other public universities. It further said, in the first year honours exam at National University 46 percent students failed last year and almost half of them in more than five subjects.
Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) made similar damaging observations in a report saying the cost of education has sky rocketed mainly because of pervasive corruption and unjustified rise in tuition fees particularly in private institutions but the quality of education has similarly nosedived.
The education system is also seriously lacking career building training and scope of developing creative thoughts and ideas in teachers. In fact we have teachers now, who are more active in ruling party politics in the first place than having the commitment to teach students.
The government control over educational institutions from schools at the lower level to universities at the top dominates the party policies and actions on the ground. Even universities now recruit teachers with poor academic grading on political consideration while bypassing more qualified candidates.
The qualitative deficiency of the ruling party men in running schools, colleges and universities is thus widely compensated by a populist academic curricular and liberal passing out records to keep students and their parents happy with ‘excellent’ results. But this is a self defeating system built on its own flaws and mainly directed to befool the nation.
Media reports showed how the government dictates the number of passing out and checking of the examination of papers of candidates to make sure that all students are passing out and also getting better marks to be on the high side of the results.
Media reports last week quoted some examiners of the last SSC examination papers saying that in meeting prior to distribution of papers to examiners for marking, senior board officials had asked them to go for liberal marking.

Complying instructions!
They said if a candidate failed to secure pass mark, he or she should be given the pass mark. If a candidate fails to write the full answer, he or she should be given the full benefit. One head examiner is reported to have said that 8,000 papers were marked under his leadership and everyone was passed. He said they are aware of the consequences but they comply with their instructions.
Meanwhile, the very foundation of the public examinations has been destroyed with ceaseless leakage of the question papers. It happened at the SSC and HSC levels making noise at all levels. The government knew that ruling party leaders and cadres at BG press and within the boards are involved in the leakages.
But there is no action and even some of the culprits were arrested for their involvement in the leakage of question papers in primary teachers’ enlistment exams in Nilphamari district, they were quickly whisked away from police custody.
Similar leakage and liberal marking are reported at almost all recruitment exams but ruling party men got selected at the end. This not only shows that the country’s education system is nose diving, the foundation of other public institutions is also slowly melting down. There must be a change in the outlook and sooner it come the better.

Source: Weekly Holiday