A NATIONAL daily on Saturday said that the number of students studying natural science in the secondary and Higher Secondary levels have been on the decline over the last decade. It only signals the backdrop of underdevelopment. Data showed that from 2004 to 2015 the number of science students in Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) level dropped from 25 percent to 17 percent, while the corresponding figure for SSC is 34 percent to 28 percent. The distressful scenario of the falling levels of science students can be attributed to the absence of laboratories, qualified teachers, increased educational costs, lax parental encouragement and limited demand for the science students in the job market.
Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) stated that 40 percent of secondary schools and 27 percent of colleges in the country do not have laboratories. Almost similar findings were revealed in 2011. That time it found said 65 percent secondary school students said their schools had no separate laboratories and 58 percent alleged that their labs did not have necessary equipment, in another study in 2011. The National Curriculum and Textbook Board stated 55 percent secondary students and 73 percent Higher Secondary students complained of the absence of necessary equipment in their school labs. A horrible tale for science education, indeed.
As good science education requires well-equipped labs, trained demonstrators, enough provisions for practical classes and qualified teachers, most of the private schools and colleges do not open a science section, if some open science education sections there is hardly any science education friendly environment. Moreover, with the onset of globalization, business education seems more job oriented and meritorious students increasingly choose business studies in consideration of job-market demand and future economic gains. They are simply deserting science studies. And poor families in rural areas find the study of science expensive.
To encourage science education, the Education Ministry has reportedly taken some steps to set up science labs etc. Anyway, the Educationists also suggest making science education interesting in school and college levels through providing quality textbooks, awarding separate scholarships to the students recruiting the best science graduates as teachers with better pay package and setting up technology based industries.
The Western civilization is the product of wide spread science education. Success in innovation and technological advancement, attainment of knowledge-power and technology have placed the West at where they are now. Literally, no nation can progress intellectually and technologically unless science education is promoted. If this dark scenario of science education continues, the future of the country will not be a very enlightened one. The decision makers of the government, in the Education Ministry in particular, should realise that a nation without science-based knowledge education can be anything but respectable in the World community.
