Various media reported that since the independence of Bangladesh, successive governments have formed at least eight education commissions including Dr. Qudrat-e-Khuda Education Commission 1972. The new education policy is one of the important agendas for the ruling government that included in the election manifesto. Awami League affirmed before the election that enrollment at the primary level of education would be raised to 100% by 2010, and education up to the level of bachelor’s degree would be made free in phase, while health care for all would be ensured by 2013. Of course, the forming of the education committee was a noble initiative for the government as well for the nation. Besides, the Sheikh Hasina government also increased the education budget 2009-2010 than any other years.

As we can see that Bangladesh education sector has been going through its chronic problems, such as quality education policy, quality of education-contents, relevance of curriculum, quality of teachers, lack of quality teacher’s training and teaching methods, school buildings and safety, accountability, effective local and national assessment tools, inadequate research funds and institutions, lack of quality educational leaders, and lack of partnership with stakeholders (student-teachers-parents-other stakeholders partnership).
It is affirmative indication that the proposed education policy 2009 incorporated the general education and Madras education, which will enable to solve a long-time multi-dimension educational practice in Bangladesh. The Sheikh Hasina administration also has emphasized educating Madrassa students on general and vocational curricula alongside religious education to bring up a skilled population for the nation.

The committee widely proposed and modified the curricula and years of studies in primary and high school levels. Besides, the committee has emphasized vocational education in the proposed policy according to the needs of the nation. However, the committee has excluded some of the vital elements, such as promoting volunteerism, environmental studies, health and nutrition, character education, and conflict resolution. If we research on the last 37 years of Bangladesh education, then we can ask questions on the quality of education that the primary and higher educational institutions have been providing to the nation! What kind of education the elderly people have received? What kind of education the children have been getting from the schools and colleges/universities in the present day? People’s negative, destructive, unproductive, unprofessional, unskilled, and unethical behavior and attitudes, and actions could be the most important elements in order to justify the outcomes of the education.

A holistic education policy implementation is most essential in the reality of Bangladesh. Every students need to be developed their emotional, physical, social, and intellectual growth. The education policy must acknowledge and emphasize the spiritual, intellectual, social, physical, and psychological needs of young children from the beginning of its establishment and this will continue to foster growth in each child. Besides promoting skill-based education, the policy must encourage children to learn and nurture the social and cultural values, integrity, tolerate, respect and love others, service to others, and to be a responsible person. The students can learn all these good values from schools.

Early age is the best learning stage of every child. What the children learn at the early age they remember and practice them at a later age. The modern educational institution’s main goal is to nourish and develop each child’s spiritual, physical, emotional, social, academic growth and knowledge, and skill. The school focuses on the growth of the whole person. Education should emphasize the great products and discoveries the human mind. Curriculum should help students clarify their beliefs and values and thus achieve commitment and dedication to guide their lives. To achieve the goals the school works closely with every student and develops a strong relationship and partnership with all parents and stakeholders to make the school effectiveness and productive. If there are quality education policy for the primary and high school levels and thus implement effectively, then the students can develop knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values necessary for a productive life to go to higher education or to serve the community, nation, and world.

For example, in addition to the final exam in the end of the 12th grade (high school), the government can adopt 100 hours volunteer service in the education policy. Every student must complete his/her 100 hours volunteer service to the community through various organizations/social clubs in order to achieve the high school certificate. This service will enable every student to be involved in social activities. They could see deeply the social problems, social needs, their responsibility to the community. This exposure can enrich their knowledge to analyze the problem, learning to think effectively, and promote ability to critical thinking in solving the community problems. This would also increase the young volunteerism and help them become socially responsible and care giver citizens.

Of course, the specific contents such as, environmental studies, health and nutrition, character education, and conflict resolution are very important to include in the primary and high curriculum. Numerous researches have shown that Bangladesh is one of the countries that by next 20 years Bangladesh will be highly affected by the climate change. As the school is the social institution and it is the right place to teach children about environmental issues and teach them how to take care the earth. Indeed, children can learn about their health and nutrition in school. In order to be a healthy person, children must know what they should eat, how to eat healthy food, what kind of nutrition in the food, and what food is important for their body. It has impression that healthy student, healthy think, and healthy student become good student. The same way, children also can get lessons to develop skills in conflict resolution and to promote character/moral life education in the early age. This learning is for life-long that would help student’s daily life and to the later workplace as well. These subjects could apply to teach according to the grade levels. It might be raised the question that who would teach these subjects? Therefore, it is very important for school’s effectiveness that the teachers must be knowledgeable, upgraded on the contents, and skilled to teach the classes. In addition, the government can create job opportunity for primary & high schools to teach health & nutrition, conflict resolution, environment, and so on. Today, the nation and the world do not need only high skilled workforce, but also need more moral developed workforce as well.

It is no doubt that the new education policy 2009 has proposed wisely excluding some of the rudiment guts that could promote a holistic person. Without promoting solid early age foundation of a child, it is impossible to build a child to absorb the digital Bangladesh and to live in the digital world. Early development of a child in a school promotes children a good/moral and productive habit, self-control, skilled, discipline life, and responsible citizen. The government should emphasis knowledge-based, skill-based and character-based education for all children equally to make the nation and the world a better place for all of us.

—-

(Nirmal Gomes is a specialist in Educational Administration & Policy Studies; Int’l Scholar Winner- recognized by the Center for Global Education, the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC, and Freelance Journalist)

In the mean-time one of nation’s major political parties BNP has already rejected the schedule for local-body elections and its arch rival Awami League (AL) also termed it a ‘conspiratorial and farcical move’. Jatiya Party (Ershad), one of the other small parties welcomed the decision to hold city corporation and municipality polls before parliamentary elections and urged the government to declare the schedule for Upazila elections too. It looks like the scheduled local government election will remain controversial to some political parties and individuals.

The care taker government’s Chief Adviser (CA) and EC both are very determined to finish local government polls prior to the declared general election in December. The nation’s political parties are still wondering what the government really want and what is in their mind. The reality is that these leaders should not take the nation towards chaos cooking up some less important issues and derail the government from the path of general election. No doubt that all the parties and the people of the nation do not want to go back to the pre 1/11 situation. Everybody should be strongly committed to restoration of the democracy in the country. And it does not mean that the care taker government and EC should simply hold a farcical election. The CA and EC both vowed to execute the elections as fair, neutral, and accepted to all. The political leaders often demand that the general election should be held immediately and thus try to force the government to handover the power to the elected persons. Of course, they must have meant that the ‘election’ should be held as per due process. As due process involves a lot of parameters the question is what kind of election the political parties and general citizens really desire?

We have seen that the EC along with CA has been working towards the polls according to a plan. It is of everybody’s concern that after 1/11 the nation’s political parties and individuals have not reached a common platform to make a mutually respectable decision for the sake of the nation’s future socioeconomic and political issues. The government’s use of emergency rules against the party leaders has muddied the process. The government is getting little cooperation and nothing more than negative response from the political parties and individuals which are also not desired. Ultimately these impediments will slow down the process of the government’s electoral activities. If the government is still determined to give their power to the elected persons sooner or later, this can be considered an optimistic sign.

It seems that the EC will face a tough challenge to hold the local government polls but will march ahead with its plan. The positive side of it is that it would be an experiment for the EC as well as the government if they want to hold fair, neutral and accepted polls without any muscle power and black money. The experience of this poll can be used in the general election just months away from it. Now the nation can only wait and see how the government approaches the local government election and how the political parties respond to it. It will give us an outlook how the parliament election will be executed by the government.

On 21 July 2005, he went to Chittagong Medical College Hospital on an assignment to cover the news of acid victim Hosne Ara, another casualty of dowry, who succumbed to her injuries (allegedly) for lack of proper treatment after she was admitted in the hospital. Zahid was trying to investigate her story, starting with the hospital’s role in dealing her case. In course of performing his duties, he himself became a victim of assault perpetrated by some intern doctors and staff members, causing him several injuries. As an immediate response to it, Chittagong Union of Journalists (CUJ) and Chittagong Metropolitan Union of Journalists (CMUJ) condemned the attack on Zahid and demanded justice by submitting a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner of Chittagong. Nationwide, other journalists’ forums also joined in and voiced their condemnations demanding proper inquiry into the matter. Zahid himself filed a criminal case with the police in this connection (The Bangladesh Observer, March 19 & July 22, 2006, Daily Suprobhat Bangladesh, April 4 & July 22, 2006, Amader Shomoy, March 4 & 23, 2006, Daily Janakantha, July 21, August 13, & Jaijaidin, August 9, 2007). Till today, there has not been any substantial progress to report, except that two years after the incident – Mohammad Abdur Rob, the Metropolitan Magistrate, last month ordered the Police to further investigate the matter (The Daily Star, Feb. 27, 2008).

Born and raised in a rural village, becoming a journalist was Zahid’s dream. With this vision, he got himself admitted in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism in Chittagong University. Due to his freelance writings, soon he became well known at the regional as well as the national level as a promising journalist. Side by side his studies, he started to work for local English and Bengali newspapers, including for example, The Daily Life, The Bangladesh Observer, and Daily Noya Diganta, reporting on various pertinent issues. These days, he is in constant fear of further attack.Since the incident, he had received several threats over telephone which was also followed by a failed kidnapping attempt on his way to work one evening. There had also been pressures on him to withdraw the criminal case. All of these facts have been duly notified to the police.

In 2006, the International media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, has ranked Bangladesh as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. In today’s Bangladesh, journalism seems more dangerous than ever. In the past decade more than 500 journalists have been killed throughout the world, often for simply trying to do their jobs. These killings were direct attacks on journalism and on freedom of expression. They were not only attacks on individuals, but also on the society as a whole. Yet very few of the attackers were brought to justice (Editors Webdog, Oct. 6, 2006). For Zahid Al Amin it was not a crime to be born in Bangladesh; it was not a crime wanting to become a journalist; and it was not a crime wanting to report true stories of real people.

In the news bytes, the current Caretaker Government of Bangladesh is trying to present itself as being serious about law enforcement. So Zahid is hoping for justice and protection of law. We are also watching how the present Government deals with Zahid’s case.