Primary education faces setback in two dists

Our Nilphamari Correspondent reports: Primary education faces setback here due to multifarious problems.

According to the District Primary Education Office (DPEO) sources, three out of 10 categories of primary institutions like government primary school, registered-primary school and community schools are under direct control of the government. Seven categories like kindergarten, ebtedayee madrassa, NGO-run schools, non-registered schools, experimental schools and two other categories of schools are out of control of the government. The schools are being run commercially with inefficient teachers and over-loaded syllabus, according to sweet will of the authorities concerned.

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However, the three categories of government-run schools are beset with manifold problems.

Sources in the DPEO told this correspondent there are 472 government primary schools, 439 registered primary schools and 27 community schools while the number of Ebtedayee madrassa is 266 and unregistered primary schools is seven in the district.

The number of kindergartens is over 100 while there are several hundreds of NGO-run schools here. Several thousands of students read in the seven categories of schools although the school management allegedly do not bother about standard of education, skill of teachers and proper syllabus.

According to the DPEO sources, 2,73,358 students got admitted in government primary schools this year. Last year the enrolment was 2,60,653. District Primary Education Officer Abdus Sattar Sarker claimed that the rate of attendance is 85 percent. But in practice the rate of students' presence in schools was not found to be more than 60 percent. As the government is giving stipends, so a number of rural children being favoured by members of the managing committees and headmasters of respective schools are shown enrolled in different government primary schools. Usually they remain absent and show their presence during official inspection and on the day of stipend distribution.

However, Abdus Sattar Sarker denied such allegations saying these past cases.

The DPEO sources told The Daily Star, at least five teachers are required in each primary school to run properly. But in many government primary schools there are three and even two teachers only. The source further said there are 2,360 posts of teachers in all 472 government primary schools in the entire district including headmasters. But the actual number of teachers excluding ADB project is 2,010.

Despite shortage of teachers, most headmasters do not teach in the class. As per rule, headmasters should take class. It is widely alleged that many influential teachers in remote areas only put their signatures in the school register and leave schools staying for a while there.

The DPEO admitted the fact of lack of adequate classrooms, insufficient furniture and educational implements including shortage of teachers. He disclosed that the schools are being run in two shifts to cope with the situation. Students of class one and two attend classes during first shift (10 am to 12 noon) while students of class three, four and five attend their classes in the second shift which lasts from 12:30 pm to 4 in the afternoon. There is an interval of half an hour. The DPEO admitted that to run a school smoothly one shift is ideal. According to him, there are only five schools in the entire district which have required facilities (teacher, educational implement, furniture and classrooms). These schools are run in single shift, he added.

In each School there is a committee of 11 members. As per rule the educated and enterprising persons are eligible to become members of such committees. But in formation of the committee local chairperson favours his own men without considering his qualification and other experience. Most headmasters remain silent for fear of wrath of union chairpersons. There is a rule to hold monthly meeting every last Thursday of the month. But such meetings are seldom held.

The government gives stipend to 40 per cent students in each primary school. Poor and meritorious students having 85 per cent presence in classes are eligible to get stipends. But in most cases, dependents and relatives of members of managing committees, headmasters and teachers enjoy the facilities illegally. The DPEO admitted occurrence of such incidents and said that after investigation two guilty headmasters were suspended. He also said that four such cases are under investigation while stipends in 12 schools have been suspended.

The DPEO claimed that the situation improved a lot after frequent inspections in various schools. He said Thana Education Officers (TEOs) and Assistant Thana Education Officers (ATEOs) were supposed to visit schools every month. Moreover, the DPEO also pays surprise visits to schools in different upazilas frequently.

But actually in Domar upazila there is no TEO and there are only 26 ATEOs while there are 35 posts.

While talking to a few TEOs and ATEOs, they said to this correspondent on average, an ATEO can visit 15 schools in a month but due to shortage of manpower each ATEO has to visit 30 schools every month. Moreover, fuel and maintenance cost of their vehicles are not provided by the government since December, 2003.

While visiting the primary schools in six upazilas, this correspondent found a pitiable condition including acute shortage of teachers, lack of adequate class rooms and educational implements, mismanagement due to unskilled handling of day to day affairs. Above all alleged corruption in district and thana education offices have degraded the standard of primary education in the district.

Widespread corruption is allegedly going on by a section of staffers of education offices during appointment, transfer, leave, training, increament of salaries and distribution of students' stipends.

However, the DPEO assured stern action if he receives specific complaint against any staff of education offices in the district.

Our Moulvibazar Correspondent reports: The primary education programme of the government is yet to be implemented in tea garden areas of the district.

At least 30,000 children in tea garden areas here are being deprived of education.

This was revealed from a survey conducted by the Bangladesh Tea Board a few months back.

There are 56,000 school going children in 160 tea gardens of the country. Of them only 26,000 children enrolled themselves in 210 primary schools located inside the tea garden belt. Rest 30,000 children are out of reach of the educational programme.

There are 210 primary schools including eight government primary schools in tea garden areas. The number of teachers in these schools is 366 while the number of students is 26,000.

According to labour law in tea industries, primary schools should be established in each tea garden and one teacher should be appointed for every 40 students. But in the practice, there is no primary school in 45 tea gardens where the number of school going children is more than 5,000.

In the existing schools, problems like acute shortage of teachers, bad condition of school building, lack of adequate furniture and educational implements including lack of proper administrative control prevail.

Sources in Moulvibazar District Primary Education Office told The Daily Star, they have no authority to supervise the schools of tea garden areas except government primary schools.

Bangladesh Tea Garden Labour Union leaders at Srimongal told this correspondent primary schools in tea belts are being run as per sweet will of tea garden management.