Cadet college education in Bangladesh

Cadet college education in Bangladesh: Education policy ignores it
Cadet colleges are feeder institutions of armed forces and the greatest supplier of quality candidates to civil sectors. The highest tier of officials who are at the helm of state affairs and a foreign remittance earners abroad showing the talents constitute most of the productions of cadet colleges. But in the education policy its name has not been mentioned at all. It is quite different system of imparting education covering all the necessary elements, conditions and environments for the learners which are absolutely necessary for the growing up learners. These elements are not written or said, they are maintained qualitatively and mandatorily. It is different as the entry level begins from grade seven and ends in twelve grades. Teachers are lecturers, assistant professors and associate professors. Very qualitative education along with military and full physical training is imparted in a cadet college to broom the learners so that they can genuinely and practically face the challenges of life in the social, national and international levels. But this education is not so costly like English medium schools. If compared, cadet colleges are producing far better and capable citizens than English Medium schools.
Cadets learn a special kind of socialization living in the dormitories of the college with cadets hailing from different parts of the country and various strata of the society in their very tender age. They learn how to behave with others, how to eat in the dinning hall with fellow classmates, teachers and with VIPs using spoons. They learn how to wear different types of dress suitable for different kinds of activities of the institution. The dress are Khaki dress, games dress, parade and PT dress, pjama Panjabi, dining hall dress . Normally it seems to be ordinary activities but their underlying meaning and significance is great. Learning how to wear tie and taking meal using spoon being a cadet of class seven bears much significance. The learners of outside institutions don’t have such kind of institutional training doing these jobs but these are very essential in life.
A cadet avails the opportunities of learning, becoming familiar with and playing many kinds of indoor and outdoor games as an usual part of their institutional programme. According to yearly routine a cadet must either participate actively or to watch actively all the known games and sports of the college which unfolds opportunities for them to of learn those games. Students of other institutions don’t have such kind of well-organized and regular programmes to participate, learn and know many kinds of games and sports. They may participate in one or two or just have ideas in one or two games but this does not happen regularly. Cadets are to do it very regularly.
All the cadets must participate in English extempore speech competition, Bengali extempore speech competition, English set speech competition, Bengali set speech competition, English spelling competition, Bengali spelling competition, English story telling completion, Bengali story telling completion, English poem recitation competition, Bengali poem recitation competition etc. regularly. These are the integral parts of six years of training in a cadet college which make a cadet all rounder, conscious, confident and courageous citizens ,good speakers and innovative to face the challenges of future life very effectively and pragmatically. The language of communication is English in these institutions. All the colleges follow English version so that the brilliant candidates may not face any difficulty in future in respective of communicating with the outside world.
Cadets enjoy teaching and close intimacy of teachers who have masters in respective subjects. Their high thinking and elevated degrees guide them to a shining path. Civil schools and collegiate schools don’t have subject-based teachers. In most of the cases only graduate teachers impart teaching there. As a result most of them suffer from a chronic fault in grasping very basic and important ideas in different subjects which accompany them till their higher education life or even throughout their life.Educational tour is a regular phenomenon of cadet college making the cadet acquainted practically with different cultural and historical places of Bangladesh and all the armed forces academies .

Jatia party in their Election manifesto declared if they were voted to power, they would establish one cadet college in each greater district. The Jatia Party Chairman Hossein Mohammad Ershad was the chairman of Cadet College Governing Body which convinced him to hold such kind of idea and notion. The same thing was uttered by an education secretary when he was invited to an auspicious function of a cadet college. This incident convinced me that the leading individuals of the Ministry of Education may not have transparent idea about cadet college education and different tier of education, differences and discrepancies among them. The said secretary went to visit and witness the activities of Cadet College for the first time in his life and the disciplined activities convinced him to establish a cadet college at least one in each greater district.
What I will propose to the cadet college authority, the chairman (adjutant General of Bangladesh Army) and secretary –Ministry of Education and the members of the governing body of cadet colleges to extend the facilities of cadet college education to the poor and marginalized in reality and practically. At present there is a provision for giving opportunity to the poor and meritorious students but in reality it doe not happen because the whole process of admission itself stands as a bar for the poor students to enter into a cadet college.
Admission circular should not be kept limited only in newspapers. Poor and rural students don’t have the access to newspapers regularly. Admission circular must reach all the rural schools. In this case, cadet college authority may take help of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education. The authority may directly send the circular to the DEOs ( District Education Officer) who will send it to all the headmasters of rural schools. Admissions forms also to be sent and distributed among the rural schools in this way. As a senior Manager of BEP I have the opportunity to mix with the DEOs almost regularly. I have formed the idea that they don’t hold transparent idea about cadet college education.Admission centres should not be made only the city of Dhaka and respective colleges. It proves a central system and for the specialized few. Admission centres should be at least in all the greater districts to extend admission facilities among the poor and many.
Then intended candidate will sit for admission test in his/her chosen centre and in the same way he/she will just put his/her choice of college. The existing practice says that those who like to get admission in Pabna Cadet College candidates have to obtain forms against that college, sit for admission test in a centre fixed by that college. The candidate cannot get admission in other college except Pabna what ever better performance he/she shows in the admission test. The more meritorious candidates usually opt for Mirzapur and Comilla Cadet colleges because of their being close to Dhaka. Necessarily, a tough competition takes place in these colleges. When they fail to get admission in these colleges, they don’t have any other choice to enter into Cadet College. Comparatively less meritorious candidates can enter into cadet colleges situated far away from Dhaka because of this admission process. To remove these ills, one boy candidate will buy one form and will put choice for all the ten colleges according to his priority and girs will give choice for all the three Girls’ colleges seriously.
The existing 50 seats in each college in each intake should be increased up to at least 100 or 150 so that defense education can be spread for many. When I was in cadet college I found and learnt that many girls could not enter into cadet college in spite of their having much required qualifications because of the paucity of seats in only one girls’ cadet college at Mymensingh. However, the previous government established another two girls cadet colleges ( one at Joypurhat and another at Feni).
It is also necessary to establish a separate education board for cadet college education. The same thing should be done for English Medium education as well. This will be done not to create division but to run the cadet college education more smoothly. The system and mode of education in these institutions call for a different board administration. One example I want to cite here. In one year all the cadet of SSC class obtained letter marks ( 80%) in English in the Test Examination. (objective 50, subjective 50). But in the board examination only one cadet obtained letter marks because the teachers of outside institution don’t have usually masters in English or even three hundred marks in the graduation level. They become board examiner just by virtue of their length of service and fail to understand the standard of the script and did not award high marks. As a result, all the English teachers were given show cause letter from Army Headquarters and from college authority. Only one cadet occupied 11th position in comilla education board that year. The same batch obtained 27 position ( combine second, combine thire including first position) in the same board in HSC examination.
Many people think cadet colleges are fully army dominated. Civilian teachers are cornered here and suppressed. This is not the case actually. My experience says that human being can nowhere enjoy absolute freedom. Probably this is divine law. When humans have the opportunity to enjoy absolute freedom they become autocrats bringing negative impact and results for themselves and for other fellow human beings. Cadet college system does not have direct influence on the teachers by army officers what many people think and say. Principal is direct boss who can be a defense officer ( army, navy or air force) who belong to education core of the forces or a civilian teacher promoted to the post of prinicipal. I think coming into contact with armed forces officers and working with them one can learn a lot. In the same way, adjutant ( either caption or major) is the colleague of the faculty members. The adjutant cannot afford to behave like boss. One problem lies here regarding addressing one another. The direct teachers of adjutants receive the addressing from them as ‘ sir’ which other faculty members don’t get. The faculty members are in an embarrassing situation how to address the adjutant as he is neither their boss who can receive the addressing as ‘ sir’ nor he is similar in rank. The adjutants also face the same problem. Here I have a suggestion. The cadet college authority can introduce addressing system as ‘ sir’ irrespective of rank and status. The adjutant and medical officer will address all the teachers as ‘ sir’ and all the faculty members except direct teachers of adjutant and medical officer also will ‘ address them as ‘ sir’. It will resolve the present situation.
During my serving in Cadet College I placed some proposals to the highest authorities which I believe did not reach them. One was to bring novelty in cadet college service for the faculty members. They should be transferred from cadet college to all the defense academies ( army, navy, air force) . The then commandant of BMA, Brigadier ( now Rtd. General) Ibrahim also showed interest in this affair. I think it should be introduced. If it is done, the job of faculty members would have been much enjoyable. Government college teachers work in military academies on deputation. This thing can be done by cadet college teachers who are already acquainted with the affairs of military. To speak the truth, I would not have left the job if such kind of situation could be introduced. Working with defense officials gives an excellent opportunity of learning. This scope should be further extended. Education core officers, who teach in academies, can be transferred to cadet colleges as well. Promotion of faculty members should not be on the basis of seniority only. After giving a certain years of service to cadet colleges, faculty members should be given opportunity to sit for promotion test. If it is done, the merit and ability will be evaluated. The existing system evaluates only the length of service which is not a reasonable system of promotion.
Faculty members enjoy rationing facilities and full residential accommodation in the campus. Its very good to dedicate to imparting teaching with cool and peaceful mind. There is no system of private tuition which I think the educationists and educational arenas should appreciate. Of course, some teachers don’t like it. They think their earning source and scope is limited. The authorities should give their eyes and considerations in this regard. Teachers should be engaged in different kinds of creative activities which will bring them money as well. Suppose, the faculty members of cadet colleges can check the scripts of all the cadets of all defense academies.
The system of cadet was first introduced in Germany in the era of Bismark. Napoleon Bonaparte introduced this in France. Military and Royal aristocrats would send their children or wards to those cadet colleges for education and a carrier in the Royal Army. After partition in 1947 the new state of Pakistan, consisting of East and West Pakistan, the system was introduced by the then president of Pakistan Field Marshall Ayub Khan. The first cadet college was built in West Pakistani province in Punjab in the year 1954. It was followed by the establishment of Faujderhat Cadet College in Chittagong in Bangladesh ( then East Pakistan) in 1958. These institutions were primarily constructed in accordance with the Public Schools of England.There are twelve cadet colleges in Bangladesh. Among these nine are for boys and three for girls. Four Cadet Colleges were established before 1971. Another six cadet colleges were turned into cadet college from Residential Model Schools founded during Pakistan period. Only two Girls’ Cadet colleges (Joypurhat and Feni ) were established during Bangladesh period and it was done during BNP government period ( 2006). Cadets passed out from a Cadet College feel deeply for his her alma mater. From this inspiration, ex-cadets of almost every cadet college have been able to from alumni associations called ex-cadets association.
After taking service in a cadet college young and energetic youths from universities start discharging their duties without any previous training. Usually, new faculty members learn doing and practicing the works and activities of this institution with senior faculty members. The nature, work and environment of cadet college are different from other educational institutions. Necessarily, working here calls for a special training which generally does not take place. During our time some of us had the opportunity to receive training at Faujderhat Cadet College. It was initiated by Principal Moffazal Hossain and the then Chairman , Maj. Gen Amin Ahmed Chowdhury.
The contribution of Cadet College is really very exciting and great in the field of education in our country. The cadets have occupied the very leading and significant positions both in the civil and military sectors. Hundreds and thousands of cadets are scattered in foreign lands contributing significantly to our national economy. In the present education policy no clear and practical directions are indicated and explained regarding the future of cadet colleges and the condition of teachers and other staff and officers of this institution. There should have been a member on the committee from Cadet College. Will these institutions continue working just as they do now or these will be turned into schools is not mentioned in the education policy at all? What will happen to the designation of the faculty members also remains vague. Cadet college occupies a significant position in our secondary and higher secondary levels. It really holds a special position in our educational arena proclaiming some special features of our education system. First feature of this institution is that it is run by armed forces division, taught by civil teachers and the duration of learning and training is six years beginning from seven and ends in twelve. Teachers enjoy the status of officers, a little bit different from civil schools or colleges. The real picture, prospects and the way of managing cadet colleges are still not quite familiar to many. Is it the cause for which the proposed education policy did not mention anything about cadet college?


Md. Masum Billah
Programme Manager: BRAC Education Programme, PACE
Phone: 9355253 (res), 01714-091431(cell)
Email: mmbillah2000@yahoo.com, mmbillah@dhaka.net