Inside schools

Inside schools

Primary education constructs the base of our education. Hence it calls for serious importance. Government deals with it with great importance in spite of its serous resource constraints but the standard still shows very poor. So, a research may see the insight of the primary education. This book tends to focus the problems and dark sides of primary education. Hence, it gives ample food for thought to the policy makers and population related to primary education.

Bangladesh operates one of the largest primary education systems in the world with approximately 18 million students. The system originated in ancient India before the introduction of British Colonial rule in the sub-continent. Primary education was four years until 1950. It was made five year in 1951.Considering the main theme, school culture’ at the centre, the objectives of this study were set.

For this study government school was selected as it covers the major portion of the primary schools through compulsory and primary education programme. Importance of this mainstream system can be helpful in improving education for masses. To get comprehensive understanding of the culture of medium category government primary school in Bangladesh and to identify the changes that took place in government primary schools due to NGO intervention.
Four government primary schools located in two different areas were selected for the study. These are Khansam Upazila in Dinajpur district and Phulbari in Kurigram. In one sense it is right but a more critical view says that it does not represent all the cultural differences, habits and problems. To learn it more effectively, more schools needed to be involved. . The research was accompanied on the team work of seven researchers. Two principal researchers from Plan Bangladesh and Brac respectively were trained in anthropological education, research and statistics. Both have previous experience in preparing school case studies. The team background proves sound enough to conduct the research. Seven member Advisory Team was formed to guide the research. Their suggestions were incorporated in the proposal and throughout the research which proves reasonable enough to give the validity to this research.

It is for the first time that the culture of schools in Bangladesh was done though some similar studies were conducted; their intentions were other than culture. Further the previous studies were on successful schools whether representatives from majority of the schools were absent. This study explored culture of B grade schools. The book deals with only mainstream government schools; this will help strengthen education for a larger population of primary students. The study concentrated on the activities inside the schools and to some extent the school catchments areas, broader system and its linkage with the school activities were not considered as part of this work.
If this could be done, the study might be more interesting and useful. The insights of the schools explored through this investigation would be useful to those who want to improve primary education system in Bangladesh.

61 percent of all formal primary schools fall in this category showing uniqueness of dealing with medium category schools. It has addressed the state owned schools it was possible to explore the institutions where majority of the primary level pupils enrolled and to link the finding with the state policy on primary education. Intention was to explore the school culture in the mediocre government primary schools and to see whether there is any influence of NGO intervention in the state owned primary schools.

The researchers selected the old schools and the youngest one was established seven decades back and the eldest one over two centuries. It is surprising to know that although the schools were established over 70 years back only one of the four schools had a brick structure. The schools had only 3-4 teachers and a similar number of classrooms. The number of students varied between 140-150. None of them had electricity facilities. Students have open access to drinking water facilities but restricted access to toilet facilities. This is enough to see the inside of our village primary education. It carries important messages for all of us.

A late start and early end of school become a norm, which results in lower contact time and ignoring some subjects. Majority students came on time but teachers late. The teachers conduct the classes in a traditional way. Memorization is the main aim of classroom activities. Instead of bringing their own textbooks from the bookshelf in the teachers’ room, the teachers used student’s textbooks, which often created problems for the respective students to follow the lesson. Teachers’ delivery of the lesion was very much conventional. No teaching aids were used except for a few exceptions. Some teachers were found disorganized in delivering lessons. The role of the students was very much passive in the classrooms. A kind of one way delivery was adopted in teaching learning provisions. Making students active is the responsibility of the teachers. Students’ active participation requires teacher’s creativity in participatory classroom management which lacks among the teachers of the study schools. Again, one cannot move to such participate actions overnight. Teachers’ continuous initiatives and creative actions in various classrooms situations from the beginning of schooling can help the students to be active participants in the classrooms. Time constraints, parental unconsciousness and students’ inattentiveness were the common blame of the teachers.

Mindset of the teachers towards first generation learners should be made positive first.
It was observed that the teachers behave well with the good students and take good care of them. They ask more questions to them and encourage them much. Teachers hardly interact with the shy, introvert and slow learners. When some students were not treated as good students they usually get demoralized.

The teachers know that punishment does not promote learning, which contradicts with their belief and practice and thus the students are punished through beating scaling and other various ways. Providing home tasks are a common practice. Students need private supplementary tutoring to do home tasks. Both the parents and the teachers think that to be a good student supplementary private tutoring is a must.

Pupil’s assessment system is flexible and week. Malpractice including teachers’ support to copying and giving additional scores in poor answer scripts were common in very school.
Primary scholarship examinations attach more importance as it stands as an indicator of school quality. The highest authorities of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education also hold the same opinion. Minimum 30 percent students must sit for scholarship examination. But it leaves scopes to neglect music, art and crafts, games and sports. Academic supervision comes next to administrative affairs. Head teachers spend a major portion of their time updating the records everyday. These government primary schools don’t have any peon to clean the classroom and other adjoining areas. Boys clean the field and girls the classroom showing the gender norm. Students of course learn some values though the work with their own hands.

Our general belief and assumption sees the inside of the primary schools and hold a poor and unimpressive picture. But this book is a living document of the real scene of our primary schools though it is run by the government and the financial crisis hardly prevails there. Still quality stands far apart. Ample scope lies to think of the primary schools.




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