THE picture is doubtlessly shocking; but not a matter to be surprised. We congratulate the ‘duo’ who qualified in the Dhaka University for English. Notably, some 22,000 failed in English under Kha- unit out of 40,565 examinees. Of the total 1,364 examinees taking test for the English course, only two students qualified. It is indeed an eye opener for the policy makers who plan for English syllabus at the Secondary levels. Interestingly, the Education Minister on Sunday blamed the faulty admission test system of Dhaka University (DU). Previous experiences in other universities are not encouraging also.
There are serious allegation of corruption to get admission involving the teachers and the leaders of the student’s wing of the political party in power. When educational institutions are politicised for the benefit of irresponsible and corrupt politics there has to be lies about progress.
The Education Minister, in an offensive move, has blamed the DU authority for its arbitrary decision in changing admission criteria and smelt a conspiracy to spoil the government’s big successes. The DU VC in retaliation has challenged the Minister for his unfounded remarks and insisted that the Minister should prove his contention by producing documents, if any.
However, the academics differ with the Minister. They accused the poor quality of teaching and lessons offered at secondary levels for the disaster. Some said, students have been forced to turn around from the syllabus following the government’s policy of a liberal higher pass percentage on a wholesale basis and allowing other malpractices like question paper leakages, copying etc. The experts did not blame the young learners. Our boys are talented and this is recognised internationally. We have incompetent teachers appointed to be political activists. The government does spend money for education but make it political base-board for remaining in power.
A kind of grade inflation floods the results, lowering the standards. Not in English but in all other subjects real teaching is of poor quality. So when the exam results are to be shown, these are manipulated by teachers who play politics. The school level education has become almost a waste of time for many. Their talents are not tested.
A good knowledge of English is vitally important for communicating with others and obtaining higher education on important subjects like mathematics and sciences.
