Exploring links for quality primary education
The current happenings around the proposed role of Brac in training of primary school teachers have provoked discussions on issues like the quality of primary education. The teachers have a taken firm stand against any involvement of Brac in supervising and monitoring the primary schools. Brac stated in a press-conference that there wasn't any intention on their side of intruding into the supervision, monitoring and administration of primary schools.
The teachers have correctly pointed out that they cannot be supervised by any NGO. They are accountable to their authorities and the management system. The government has a large setup for supervision, monitoring and evaluation of primary education from the top to the grassroots levels. We are aware of this system and its efficiency.
Primary school teachers along with the government have achieved one of the highest enrolment rates in the South Asian region. They also contributed towards achieving parity in boys and girls enrolment. However, ensuring quality in primary education is still a far cry.
Around 45% of children cross primary school going age without completing primary education. Two out of three enter adulthood without basic literacy and numeric skills. There are poor retention and high drop-out rates.
The rate of post-primary discontinuation is also alarming. Due to the crisis of quality, most children do not achieve the minimum competencies even after completing the primary education cycle.
Numerous researches and real life experiences show that there are inadequacies in terms of child-friendly teaching/learning methods, materials and well-trained teachers in the country. We need to take special measures and invest more resources for improving the teaching/ learning processes for changing the classroom culture.
Teachers might agree that improvement of the quality of teachers is a must to ensure quality primary education. The question is how far can the existing system deal with the capacity development challenge of a very large number of primary school teachers.
The scope for building the capacity of primary school teachers is limited in the country. There are 54 Primary Training Institutes (PTIs), which offer a one-year certificate course (C-in-Ed) for primary school teachers of the government and registered non-government primary schools. This means that the 54 PTIs need to serve more than 80 thousand primary education institutions, in which there are more than three hundred twenty thousand teachers!
In fact, most of the non-government primary school teachers remain untrained for a long time during their service in the schools. This has also to do with the capacity of the National Academy for Primary Education (NAPE), National Textbook and Curriculum Board (NCTB), and Upazila Resource Centers (URC).
Most of the government primary school teachers have already received C-in-Ed, or are receiving the cluster trainings. After pre-service training, it becomes difficult for the teachers to make use of the training in the prevailing classrooms settings for various reasons.
On the other hand, teachers of other institutions have very limited opportunities for capacity building. Therefore, the career path of as a primary school teacher is very feeble.
It was found during the discussions between PEDP II (Primary Education Development Program phase II) and the civil society last November that the existing teacher training was not producing the desired results.
They found that PTI training was not updated, and contributed little towards achieving the desired competencies for the primary school children. Reform in PTI training has been under consideration for a long time, but there hasn't been any notable progress so far.
Therefore, the stagnation in teachers' capacity building should be addressed through models and experiences that exist in the country. Models and experiences of Brac could be utilised to design and try more effective, practical and efficient approaches. The government should consider this.
The government is implementing PEDP II to increase primary school access, participation and completion in accordance with "Education for All" (EFA), Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and other policy commitments. PEDP II has set the Primary School Quality Levels (PSQL) standard, which shows its systematic approach in working for and tracking progress in quality.
Rasheda K. Chowdhury, the advisor for the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME), has declared that Brac has not been given any authority to monitor and supervise primary school teachers. She added that Brac would use their experience in teachers' capacity building in upazillas.
So far, we have got the views of Brac and the teachers on the issue. However, we are yet to know the grassroots government officials' views. Their role in this pilot project was not discussed in the newspapers.
There are several disconnects regarding Brac's pilot program and teachers' association's position. It seemed that the teachers and their associations were not aware of the goals and objectives of the program. Decisions should be made known by the district and upazilla level government primary education officials to the teachers.
The government should have introduced Brac to the teachers and clarified the goals, objectives and benefits before the initiating the pilot project.
The government should take the following steps before implementing the teachers' capacity development program with Brac:
* MOPME should organise a press conference to clarify their position as well as the nature of the support expected from Brac in developing teachers' capacity further in the upazilas;
* The government should hold dialogues with representatives from the primary teachers' associations, preferably in presence of Brac;
* The government should have series a of meetings in the upazilas with primary school teachers for clarifying all stakeholders' roles and activities, including outcomes of the Brac pilot project;
* Finally, Brac should organise a series of meetings with teachers and SMC members, along with members of the civil society, local administration and media.
We believe that the time has not run out for starting this pilot program. The government should immediately take measures to remove confusion around the project, and facilitate the process of an amicable solution for the betterment of quality primary education in Bangladesh.
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