A new modern and time befiting syllabus is underway to meet the demand of twenty first century. This new syllabus will prepare the students of schools and colleges to face the challenges of getting world class jobs. The changes and addition in the new curriculum would contain topics like Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Vision 2041 of the government, National Education Policy of 2010, History of Liberation War, Constitution of Bangladesh, election manifesto of Bangladesh Awami League.
The changed syllabus would be implemented in phases starting from 2021, 2022 and complete in 2023. The changed text books would be introduced in different classes for convenience. Experts said that the above new addition of topics will be given priority in the new syllabus. They also mentioned that ensuring more practical lessons for students and imparting proper training to teachers in this regard are of immense importance.
They made the comments in the wake of the government’s move to bring changes to school and college curriculum from class one to class twelve in order to improve the quality of education. Without providing practical and proper training to the teachers and students in 2010, when the government had introduced creative education system, it did not bring any benefit for the students, they observed.
The academicians pointed out that as the teachers did not have any idea or obtain training on the changed topics, they faced serious difficulties about how and in what way they would teach their students. On the other hand, students who did not have any idea about the creative question faced serious complications, as they could not understand the form of education.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, more than 150,000 teachers of secondary schools and madrasas do not have Bachelor of Education Degree or required training. If such situation continues, the education of the schools and colleges would face same fate of poor performance or outcome in results by the students.
Asked for a comment on the government’s move to bring changes in the curriculum, educationalist Emdadul Haque told Bangladesh Post, “Obviously, it’s a good initiative but effective implementation and practical teaching in educational institutions are needed.” Emdadul Haque, a professor at the University of Chittagong said, “Most of our school teachers in rural areas, even in towns, are not properly trained up. Apart from changing curriculum, teachers training and regular monitoring are also required to be ensured to improve the quality of education.”
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) Professor M Kaykobad said, “The current curriculum already puts pressure on the students. It may take five years to prepare new books, but, you have to create more practical syllabus. So there is no need to change the books in 20 to 30 years. He also said, “Today, we see that the books are quite thick but these lack good content.”
To maintain international quality in the country’s education, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has undertaken the initiative to revise current curriculum after reviewing, analyzing and taking opinion from experts, sources said. The textbooks change when the curriculum changes. However, new books will not be introduced in all classes all at a time.
The students of class one, two and six will get the new curriculum books in 2021; class three, four, seven, nine and eleven in 2022 and in 2023, the students of class five and eight will get the new books. In fact, the syllabus was last changed in 2012. Professor Dr AKM Reazul Hasan, member of NCTB (Primary curriculum) told Bangladesh Post, "To take the country's education reach international standard, we have already started revise the current curriculum in a bid to make the changes well-timed. Meanwhile, collection on further information for the changes in currently underway.
He said, “We will also collect information from the intellectuals, educationists, business persons and other relevant persons." Reazul Hasan further said that firstly, we need to have a need assessment and then situation analysis, and they will keep in focus on the effectiveness of the curriculum and how it will adjust with the global trend in education.
Another NCTB member (secondary curriculum), Professor Mashiuzzaman said, “Curriculum is the philosophy of education of a nation. A country’s education curriculum is outlined keeping in mind what challenges the future generation face.” According to him, there is a trend to review and revise the curriculum in every five to six years in the world. In keeping with this trend, the Bangladesh government has also started revising the curriculum.
“Information has already been collected from two hundred institutions of 36 upazilas in 18 districts of nine education zones of the country. The collected data are now being prepared for proper analysis. In the selection process of institutions, we have kept all the areas under consideration including country’s advanced, backward and remote areas,” Professor Mashihuzzaman said.
