Class-V final exams in CHT
Photo: Noor Alam / Driknews
I am very pleased to learn that for the first time the govt. has introduced Class-V final exams intending to improve the education standard in the country. This will definitely help to ensure quality education in our society. An NGO named Koinonia has been running an education programme named Tribal Children Education Programme with a total of 100 schools in 4 upazilas under Bandarban district since 2005. As this organisation is mainly involved with education programme, it has gained some knowledge/experience on the present status quo of education among the indigenous children in the remote areas. In light of the experience gained, I would like to share some of my views on the new rules of class- five final exams. Considering the overall situation, I am not convinced whether the same rules that applied in the plain land could be practised in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) or not, because the state of education, socio-economic and geographical location of the CHT is quite different from the rest of the country. Though there are many contributing factors behind the prevailing situation of education in the CHT, some of them may be mentioned as follows: 1) In many schools, students of class five could hardly read, speak or write in Bangla properly, not to speak of English, in the remote areas. 2) Spending a couple of hours with teacher in the class is far from being enough for learning Bangla or English for them. 3) The schools ( govt. & non-govt.) are not running regularly in the remote areas. 4) On the excuse of security concern in the remote areas, a good number of schools are run by proxy teachers who are half-educated (non-matriculate). 5) There is none around to help students in their lessons back home during studies. In other words, there is no conducive environment for studies for tribal children at home. They need intellectual support as well as emotional support to help them increase their interest in studies. 6) Since parents/guardians are living from hand to mouth, many of them were reluctant or unable to send their children for the exams away from home. Against this backdrop, I am not sure whether these students can pass the exams or not. If they fail they will obviously lose their interest in studies. Under the circumstances, if the govt. imposes the same rules that are applied in the plain land, I am afraid whether it will serve its purpose. I personally feel that instead of increasing the enrolment rate, the newly introduced rules might rather increase the dropout rate among the indigenous students in the CHT. The government should take into account the reality of the CHT and think twice if the same measures applied in the plain land would be applicable for the indigenous children in the CHT.
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