This piece is based on my professional experience of classrooms across the country. My work has been in public sector schools, both urban and rural, serving the vast majority of the population rather than in the private, well-equipped English-medium schools which cater to the elite.
What is education for? Is it to transmit our collective social wisdom from one generation to the next, to pass on the best that’s been said and done? Is its main purpose perhaps to promote socialisation: preparing the young to work together as a society, follow its customs and achieve social harmony? Or is it to equip young people with the skills and knowledge they need for independent adult life and the demands of the labour market? It’s a basic but vital question, and yet on my many visits to classrooms up and down the country, I’m not sure it’s one we’ve fully thought through in relation to the way we actually teach and learn here.
Classrooms are microcosms of the whole education system, and indeed in many ways of wider society. When all the conventions are implemented, policies drafted, plans made, training given, it’s here that the real thing happens. So what goes wrong?
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November 18th, 2006 at 12:36 am
The total education system has been paralyzed and been made captive to the hurdles of lack of learning and acquiring knowledge by the low income people by the corrupt system and the politicians with the help of some bereaucatic red tape and
self interest to rule the undermin class.
You know in our country we have democracy by name and kingship by practice.
The have’s doesn’t want to share and care their knowledge or education or their finance with the haven’ts because they are fearful that if they do they will create their own competition.
We are in a country where they are also taught not to question the authority God and Might are always right and you don’t have the right to choose your God. So if the uneducated people become the God they won’t allow good things to happen.
We need total educational reformation the grass root level and for that it need lot of work. We need to bring the educational consultant from around the world and get the people in the country involved with this preparation for the future education system where knowledge would be transfer to the students by easy interactive productive tested proven ways.
Who will bell the cat? who will do the education reformation? Will Dr Yunus be a good choice to take this initiativez?
If he does than the same old poor people after getting the right education would question him for his high interest microcredit loan policy.
This is what is wrong with us. We are all scared because we live in Glass house and make glass our fate.
Thanks for your concern as a Non Bangladeshi working on such and important issues. Do more research the education system was not like this 40 years ago it was a very good system where lot of genious came out of there than and lot still does we just need a brush up to the system and some TLC.
Need quality teachers to produce quality sudents. Garbage in Garbage out. Need to teach the trainers first before giving them the responsibility to teach 100 students.
Please keep me updated about your plan I am with you by word and work both.
thanks
Kawser Jamal
http://www.changeBangladesh.com