Unitrack secondary education: Stepping backward?

At the very outset, allow me to clarify the position about changes in education system in particular. We all fought for independence and an exploitation-free society. One of the instruments of exploitation in the society is education. For a pretty long time, the country had been witnessing a multi-track system in the whole arena of education -- from primary to university levels. We have kindergarten schools for richer segments of the society compared to a primary stage for the poorer ones. We have public universities for the poor and middle compared to the private ones for the rich and upper middle class. We have cadet institutions, madrashas and all that grievously give an unequal society. By and large, education has become a commodity to be bought and sold in the market and the price, in some cases, is determined by the play of market forces. Therefore, the current exploitative -- and expensive from societal point of view -- system must be replaced with a relatively egalitarian one if we really mean human resources development.

It is, perhaps, not wise to comment that education system does not differ among countries; in fact they may differ even between states of a country. But the basic tenets of education remains same everywhere. Access to the types of education is mostly determined by merit and the least by money. The education system is not as much differentiated elsewhere as it is in our country.

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We were under uni- or one-track system in 1960s. All secondary students had to go through similar kind of courses. After a long experiment, the system had to be abandoned keeping in mind the growing needs of the society and the intellectual competence of the students. If we have to forgo the traditional route that ruled us for 40 years, we have to show sufficient account of the ailment in the system. Our observation is that, despite severe limitations in the multi-track system, the system performed better than the earlier one. The present system is likely to deprive students of their choices as per competence, access to science and commerce-based subjects that are likely to rule the world in the new century.

Let us assume that the uni-track system holds good prospects for the society. The pertinent question then is: has the government held any discussions with stakeholders before embarking on the new experiment? I am told that just through a press briefing by the honourable Education Minister, the country came to know that from January 2005, the new system is going to work . The minister is also reported to have said that the new system would create enlightened citizens in the country. A participant student in the discussion -- who bagged GPA 5 Gold during the last examination -- quirked: "Should we assume that all those in the current cabinet studying under the multi-track system of education are not enlightened?" He and another brilliant girl expressed dissatisfaction over the upcoming change.

The government tends to use the experience of other countries in support of their hypothesis. We are told that many countries were visited at the cost of millions of Takas. But in this age of internet, you need not have to travel as much to countries just to know about their syllabus. The discussion meeting also noticed that no discussion or dialogues were held with teachers' federation, student organisations or civil society organisation before shifting the system. Most disconcertingly though, a number of clippings from news papers show that a burgeoning book business await on the wings to seize upon the opportunity of the new system. The clippings also hinted at mounting corruption crawling behind the scene.

One would also raise another important issue. Religious learning seemingly rose to prominence compared to science-based subjects. In a country where religious teaching is taking place in Madrashas which are not inadequate in number, let us ponder, whether it would be wise to put 100 marks for another subject at secondary level. The tone of the discussions that followed on the day seems to hint at the dominance of a partner in the alliance in power in making decisions particularly in the case of education. The discussion also alleged that through this type of unilateral declaration on unitrack system in the secondary education system, the country's human resources development is destined for decline.

Man, society and civilization step forward and not backward. It seems that on the heels of some faults in existing system, we have the tendency to go back to the system that dates back to 50 or 100 years. Instead of curing the ills, we have the motive of killing the patients. If change for better is envisaged then, suffice it to say, the whole system of education should be changed, not a part. And to do that a nation-wide discussion with stakeholders is urgently needed. Before any discussion in the parliament or dialogues with stakeholders, introduction of the new system in a hurry might hurt not heal us. We can only expect that the government would look twice before it leaps once.

Abdul Bayes is a Professor of Economics at Jahangirnagar University.