M M Jasim :
The Education Ministry has issued a directive asking for closure of coaching center three days before the commencement of SSC and equivalent examinations and to continue the closure till the end of the examinations.
The directive issued on Monday appears contrary to the government adopted education policy- 2010 in which the government has clearly prohibited all coaching business at all level throughout the country for all time.
Academics wondered how the government can issue a directive asking for partial closure of coaching business to suggest it is not opposed to coaching at other time. The directive has violated the government’s own policy prompting many to question the government honesty to close coaching now destroying our education system.
Skeptics wonder how the Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid is delivering speeches against coaching centers and coaching related people, including teachers, almost at every program and his ministry is issuing orders defying his stated policies and utterances.
Professor Syed Moonjurul Islam ofEnglish Department of Dhaka University told The New Nation on Tuesday that the government showed that coaching related people are more powerful than the ministry itself. Why the coaching will be closed during the SSC examination or for a month or so is not clear to him. The minister seems quite tolerant to coaching business.
“We know coaching is a matter of Tk 50,000 crore business annually and even the government is showing helpless to stop it. But the ministry cannot issue such directive in direct conflict to its avowed policy.
Syed Moonjurul said if the government is not in a position to stop coaching business, it should form a ministry to be named “coaching ministry” to develop the business for the vested interest quarter.
Professor Siddiqur Rahman Khan of the Islamic History Department of the Dhaka University said, “We are caught in surprise hearing the government instruction on coaching business. When the ministry asks for closure of coaching for a certain time, it proves coaching is legal at other days of the year.”
The instruction further said the government is also considering ways and means to shut off access to internet and Facebook during the examinations. It justified the directive saying the government made the decision on coaching centers in an effort to create a “fair and fraud-free environment” for examinees.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid presides over a national monitoring committee meeting that made the decision.
