The government is going to do an overhaul of the education system in phases from January 2023. It will ultimately scrap public exams before class-X and there will be no exams of any kind for students up to class-III. The government hopes the new curriculum will reduce emphasis on memorisation and prioritise experiment and activity based learning. By 2025, all students would be introduced to this new system. According to newspaper reports, the government will introduce streams – science, humanities and business studies – from class XI. Presently students choose the streams in class IX. There will also be no half-yearly and final exams. The introduction of the new curriculum has been delayed by two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Actually, the common people still do not know what the government really wants – educated and skilled people or literate and unskilled graduates. The first choice is needed to build an advanced country, the second option is a burden for any nation. Experiments on education one after another have been going on since the independence of the country. Despite great demand, the recommendations of Qudrat-e-Khuda Education Commission report were not materialised. All the governments tried to make an education policy in line with its political strategy. As a result, our people have experienced three types of education in the country – Bengali medium, English medium and Madrasa system. All the three conflicting systems went on simultaneously creating three conflicting streams in the same country. And certainly, this is very convenient to serve the political purposes of the ruling elite.
What shocks us very much is that all successive governments have created a huge number of unemployed people who are unable to get any work at home or abroad – except giving cheap labour — due to lack of proper education and technical skills. A recent study done by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) found that about 66% of graduates under the National University remain unemployed due to lack of job opportunities. The BIDS has identified three major reasons for the present situation. First, there is a huge gap between demand and supply in the job market; second, the number of graduates has doubled in the last 10 years without the creation of any opportunities for them and third, no scope of getting a job for a bachelor in the Agri sector which is currently flourishing most creating job opportunities.
We are very upset to see that the government has produced so many graduates to keep them unemployed. If the number of only graduates has doubled in the last decade, then what’s the condition of people in other tiers, only God knows. It is also surprising that millions of students have come out of madrasas getting religion-based education. What will they actually do in the competitive tech-based local and international job market? Now again the education system is going to be changed after keeping educational institutions closed for around two years. We must say the government shouldn’t make our children Guinea pigs again and again to fulfil its interests.
