A THOUSAND digital pianos from South Korea will join the band of 4,000 more, which have been lying unused in primary schools since they were given three years ago as teachers and students cannot play them. In some cases, the pianos given to schools in 2011 are used as tables in teachers’ common room or headteacher’s office, as per a report of a local daily. South Korean Booyoung Company’s scheme to donate 5,000 pianos to schools in Bangladesh in three phases was wrapped up in a programme in the capital yesterday.
The Primary and Mass Education Minister, Mostafizur Rahman attended the ceremony as chief guest. ‘Nearly 1,000 pianos and some blackboards was handed over to teachers in the programme on Saturday. The pianos cost $1000 each,’ said the report. Most of the primary schools in Dhaka and neighbouring areas have not even unpacked the pianos while in some schools, the pianos are lying in the teachers’ common room or headmaster’s office being used as tables.
At the Khilgaon Government Model Primary School in the capital, the piano is in the headteacher’s room with crockery being placed on it. A teacher at the school said: ‘Not a single student of this school even know that the school has such a piano.’ The headteacher, Shamsunnahar, however, said that neither teachers nor students were trained to play the piano. ‘It has come of no use. Without training, it is not possible to play the piano.’
While it is indeed a praiseworthy initiative of a South Korean company to donate pianos free of cost to Bangladesh some training in using and maintaining these machines should also have been given alongside the pianos themselves. It would also have been better if the South Korean company had indeed figured out what the requirement of Bangladesh’s schools would have been as many of them don’t have adequate classrooms, benches, toilets, teachers’ common rooms, tables and chairs. These items, if donated, would have an immediate and positive effect in improving the decaying infrastructure of our schools.
It is our hope that in the future if any organisation decides to donate equipment to any of our government organsiations free of charge — whether it be schools, colleges, or hospitals, the government should at first decide if the items are needed. If so they should ensure that the donating agencies have some sort of training programme to make sure that the facilities are used properly as only adequate training will ensure that such a thing happens. Simply giving away surplus equipment to other nations is not charity -care must be taken so that they are used and do not simply rot away unpacked – and for this the government must ensure that proper training is required.
