The divided reality of disparity in education is known to all. Actually, it has turned out as two educations in two societies in a country. The laughs and smiles, the dreams and aspirations, the leisure and extracurricular pursuits of all the students are not the same. Many of them always live in the narrow precinct of uncertainty, half-fed stomach, unloving environment, and cruelty while a few have the wide arrangements of attention, affection, care, fulfilled requirements, home full with laughs and parental loves, writes Farooque Chowdhury
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NOW, we all know the best educational institution at the higher secondary level in the country. And, next to that, the better nine similar institutions have also been identified. The honour is for one year, till next higher secondary certificate exam results come out, and sets a new honour list or reconfirms the present one.
It’s really nice in a society. At least, if not the whole, a section or an institution shows its mind: its utter eagerness to encourage pursuit of knowledge, its longing to recognise honest and tireless efforts, and a reflection of intellectual exercise the institution engages with. It shows the section’s concern for better education, good wishes to honour the institutions imparting education in the best and better ways.
This way of honouring or identifying the best, etc is not new at all. Every year, along with the Higher Secondary Certificate examinations results the country comes to know a similar honour list. The secondary-level examinations also produce a similar list. But are there some problems in the waiting? I don’t know exactly. But my ignorant mind ponders.
As far as I recollect from news reports that there are now many schools that impart HSC-level education. But all colleges have not added to them a junior wing: Secondary School Certificate. How the comparison will be made next year: between colleges and schools? Will that be between a group of institutes engaged with formal education only with HSC or HSC and post-HSC levels, and another group with SSC and HSC levels? Will that be a fair comparison? Shall not that complicate confusion? Probably a secular scale will be innovated. But that I don’t know.
Probably an environment for competition will settle down in the world of education and will make it an arena for competition. Probably, there will be an aura for healthy growth, growth for mind and knowledge. But is the comparison gearing competition fair, even among the institutes engaged only with HSC-level education? Do all the institutes have the same facilities and the same capacities? Are all the students coming from the same socioeconomic background? Do all of them have the same opportunities, at the educational institutes they attend to and the homes they live in? The food? The living space? The space for study? The help, encouragement and motivation at home? The money power to avail private tuition, which has turned out an appendix to educational institutions? Are the capacities of teaching staff the same? Does exam result reflect labour and endeavour of teachers only? Should a college sustained by a poverty-ridden rural community be compared to an institution having learners from well-off background? Are all the teachers remunerated evenly? Are these also factors that influence performance or excellence? Then, is the way of identifying best and betters fair? I don’t know. My ignorance has not allowed me to have answers to these questions.
There are students coming from poor, working families who have to engage in income earning activities to help their families. There are girl students who have to help their mothers. The income earning activities vary: part-time engagement with the enterprise the student’s mother or father has floated with micro-credit or take care of the younger brother or sister while the mother engages with micro-credit enterprise or with household chores or work as a farm hand. In areas, especially in the rural areas, seasons determine study clock of students and their attendance in educational institutions. Power of poverty pushes out many students from the temple of knowledge. Some of them are fortunate enough to have the strength to be stubborn and decline the diktat of poverty. They pursue their dream: get formal education. These students overwhelm many colleges.
There are colleges that are fortunate enough that they don’t have the opportunity to enrol half-fed, hard-pressed students, students coming from low-income families. The divided reality of disparity in education is known to all. Actually, it has turned out as two educations in two societies in a country. The laughs and smiles, the dreams and aspirations, the leisure and extracurricular pursuits of all the students are not the same. Many of them always live in the narrow precinct of uncertainty, half-fed stomach, unloving environment, and cruelty while a few have the wide arrangements of attention, affection, care, fulfilled requirements, home full with laughs and parental loves.
Doesn’t this reality get reflected in the performance of respective students, and in turn in the performance of respective colleges? What role the teaching staff can play in overcoming this gap that determines the performances? Then, should there be a comparison? Is the comparison fair? Hasn’t the inequality in education taken away the base for comparison? Was there even a posture of fairness by the Roman Empire as a gladiator was provided with arms to face either a beast or another armed gladiator? I don’t know the answers.
All these are probably trifling questions. Probably institutes concerned with education, quality of education, level of performance of educational institutions should not overwhelm them with the questions of inequality in the lives of sections of students. Those institutions should not get influenced by the inequality that influences students’ performance. Probably the deity of judgement sits somewhere blindly only to deliver an impartial judgement. These facts are difficult for me to perceive.
Despite these unknown answers I continue pondering: does performance of an educational institute gets reflected in exam results only? Is it the only duty of educational institutes to deliver exam result? Then, does performance of educational institute mean only appearing and performing in exams by students? How will that educational institute be judged that teaches its students to serve humanity, to put labour for humanity, to help educate deprived children? Probably there are some more ‘things’, maybe those are values, practices, views, senses, educational institutes are to imbibe with the learners, the students. Is performance in exam the only goal of a learner? Does that goal uphold the goal of education?
It may happen as now is a performance oriented time, as it is an achievement-oriented market. But what’s the definition of performance and achievement? Are not capacities of teachers required even for performing solely by educational institutes? What are the factors that influence that capacity of teachers? Is there any relationship between that capacity and material condition of teachers? Does that capacity grows over a year and withers away next year? Answers to these questions are not known to me. But I search for. But I don’t know where and how to search.
But my very ordinary sense tells me that these questions are alive in the minds of the concerned. Obviously they know all these facts; they are well aware of the overwhelming fact of inequality that influences performance. Then, what is the reason behind this hullabaloo by a section? Is it related to marketing? Has education been made a commodity? Or, it may happen that education is not a commodity, but aspirations of young learners and their parents have been made a commodity. Do aspirations turn commodity? Have there interests grown up centring these aspirations to market with? These questions are difficult to answer for me. But I find advertisements in the press. Advertisement is expenditure. That is part of investment. A return should accompany an investment. For me, riddle indeed.
I don’t know that whether inequality bitten teachers and students will be haunted by these questions or not. I don’t know that whether educational institutions striving to imbue their students with moral values will be frequented by these questions. I don’t know that whether student activism will get out of morass of non-questioning and engage with the questions.
Farooque Chowdhury contributes on socioeconomic issues.
This editorial published at The NEWAGE, Daily newspaper, one of the leading English dailies in Bangladesh
It’s really nice in a society. At least, if not the whole, a section or an institution shows its mind: its utter eagerness to encourage pursuit of knowledge, its longing to recognise honest and tireless efforts, and a reflection of intellectual exercise the institution engages with. It shows the section’s concern for better education, good wishes to honour the institutions imparting education in the best and better ways.
This way of honouring or identifying the best, etc is not new at all. Every year, along with the Higher Secondary Certificate examinations results the country comes to know a similar honour list. The secondary-level examinations also produce a similar list. But are there some problems in the waiting? I don’t know exactly. But my ignorant mind ponders.
As far as I recollect from news reports that there are now many schools that impart HSC-level education. But all colleges have not added to them a junior wing: Secondary School Certificate. How the comparison will be made next year: between colleges and schools? Will that be between a group of institutes engaged with formal education only with HSC or HSC and post-HSC levels, and another group with SSC and HSC levels? Will that be a fair comparison? Shall not that complicate confusion? Probably a secular scale will be innovated. But that I don’t know.
Probably an environment for competition will settle down in the world of education and will make it an arena for competition. Probably, there will be an aura for healthy growth, growth for mind and knowledge. But is the comparison gearing competition fair, even among the institutes engaged only with HSC-level education? Do all the institutes have the same facilities and the same capacities? Are all the students coming from the same socioeconomic background? Do all of them have the same opportunities, at the educational institutes they attend to and the homes they live in? The food? The living space? The space for study? The help, encouragement and motivation at home? The money power to avail private tuition, which has turned out an appendix to educational institutions? Are the capacities of teaching staff the same? Does exam result reflect labour and endeavour of teachers only? Should a college sustained by a poverty-ridden rural community be compared to an institution having learners from well-off background? Are all the teachers remunerated evenly? Are these also factors that influence performance or excellence? Then, is the way of identifying best and betters fair? I don’t know. My ignorance has not allowed me to have answers to these questions.
There are students coming from poor, working families who have to engage in income earning activities to help their families. There are girl students who have to help their mothers. The income earning activities vary: part-time engagement with the enterprise the student’s mother or father has floated with micro-credit or take care of the younger brother or sister while the mother engages with micro-credit enterprise or with household chores or work as a farm hand. In areas, especially in the rural areas, seasons determine study clock of students and their attendance in educational institutions. Power of poverty pushes out many students from the temple of knowledge. Some of them are fortunate enough to have the strength to be stubborn and decline the diktat of poverty. They pursue their dream: get formal education. These students overwhelm many colleges.
There are colleges that are fortunate enough that they don’t have the opportunity to enrol half-fed, hard-pressed students, students coming from low-income families. The divided reality of disparity in education is known to all. Actually, it has turned out as two educations in two societies in a country. The laughs and smiles, the dreams and aspirations, the leisure and extracurricular pursuits of all the students are not the same. Many of them always live in the narrow precinct of uncertainty, half-fed stomach, unloving environment, and cruelty while a few have the wide arrangements of attention, affection, care, fulfilled requirements, home full with laughs and parental loves.
Doesn’t this reality get reflected in the performance of respective students, and in turn in the performance of respective colleges? What role the teaching staff can play in overcoming this gap that determines the performances? Then, should there be a comparison? Is the comparison fair? Hasn’t the inequality in education taken away the base for comparison? Was there even a posture of fairness by the Roman Empire as a gladiator was provided with arms to face either a beast or another armed gladiator? I don’t know the answers.
All these are probably trifling questions. Probably institutes concerned with education, quality of education, level of performance of educational institutions should not overwhelm them with the questions of inequality in the lives of sections of students. Those institutions should not get influenced by the inequality that influences students’ performance. Probably the deity of judgement sits somewhere blindly only to deliver an impartial judgement. These facts are difficult for me to perceive.
Despite these unknown answers I continue pondering: does performance of an educational institute gets reflected in exam results only? Is it the only duty of educational institutes to deliver exam result? Then, does performance of educational institute mean only appearing and performing in exams by students? How will that educational institute be judged that teaches its students to serve humanity, to put labour for humanity, to help educate deprived children? Probably there are some more ‘things’, maybe those are values, practices, views, senses, educational institutes are to imbibe with the learners, the students. Is performance in exam the only goal of a learner? Does that goal uphold the goal of education?
It may happen as now is a performance oriented time, as it is an achievement-oriented market. But what’s the definition of performance and achievement? Are not capacities of teachers required even for performing solely by educational institutes? What are the factors that influence that capacity of teachers? Is there any relationship between that capacity and material condition of teachers? Does that capacity grows over a year and withers away next year? Answers to these questions are not known to me. But I search for. But I don’t know where and how to search.
But my very ordinary sense tells me that these questions are alive in the minds of the concerned. Obviously they know all these facts; they are well aware of the overwhelming fact of inequality that influences performance. Then, what is the reason behind this hullabaloo by a section? Is it related to marketing? Has education been made a commodity? Or, it may happen that education is not a commodity, but aspirations of young learners and their parents have been made a commodity. Do aspirations turn commodity? Have there interests grown up centring these aspirations to market with? These questions are difficult to answer for me. But I find advertisements in the press. Advertisement is expenditure. That is part of investment. A return should accompany an investment. For me, riddle indeed.
I don’t know that whether inequality bitten teachers and students will be haunted by these questions or not. I don’t know that whether educational institutions striving to imbue their students with moral values will be frequented by these questions. I don’t know that whether student activism will get out of morass of non-questioning and engage with the questions.
Farooque Chowdhury contributes on socioeconomic issues.
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