WHILE a debate has been going on about the new education policy, its different objectives and process of implementation, no attention has been given to taking measures in regard to raising the standard of English teaching and learning in our schools. People wonder whether this country, with such a vulnerable economy, can afford the colossal expenditure (Tk.31 thousand crore) for extending the primary level up to class eight in about 80 thousand primary and 19 thousand secondary level schools that are almost in a shambles.
The decline in the standard of English language teaching and learning in the post liberation years has been very steep. People are wondering whether, by reintroducing English at the primary stage, the situation can be improved without making any attempt to augment the basics as well as selecting proper textbooks and recruiting competent and qualified teachers.
If one systematically analyses the causes of such decline, it will be quite evident that the course-content of English textbook and grammar leaves much to be desired. Along with this the fact that causes dissonance is the alarming deterioration in the capability of teaching English at the primary stage.
The reality is that people worry about their kids and the nation worries about the next generation. The people want their children to learn better and be able to hold good jobs. The idea of gaining first-rate knowledge has seized the citizenry with no exception. The failure of the primary and secondary schools has driven many of our city-based parents, and even a good number of affluent parents in the district towns, to send their wards to kindergartens and English medium schools that have sprouted in these areas.
The fees that these institutions are charging for admission and as regular tuition fees are just not only incredible but also unaffordable even for many affluent parents. Nobody can deny that these institutions have become a commercial venture, a first rate business to earn money with utter disregard towards creating a sound and uniform base for education for all.
Without mincing words, it can be said that, other than creating a cultural elitist class, the success in teaching English in these schools, which stress mostly on vocabulary with little effort on language skills and shorn of actual knowledge of grammar, has been far from satisfactory.
The post-liberation days saw an upsurge of ultra-nationalistic sentiment, driving people crazy about our national language Bangla, which, too, our students did not learn properly. Promoting English in schools at the expense of Bangla sometimes confronts a host of cultural values. Side by side, exclusion of English from our curriculum for the last 30 plus years has invited a plethora of ills that seems to choke up societal growth and general improvement in education. The ills have accumulated to such a pathetic proportion that raising the standard of English without regard to the overall quality of education is an impossible proposition. There is something awfully wrong in the preparation of the English syllabus, its teaching methodology and in recruiting teachers from the primary stage to secondary level.
Today, Bangladeshis can take pride in the enormous strides they have made in different aspects of national activities, but not in the education sector. With the government set to launch its new education policy, it must restructure the English syllabus from the primary to degree level. Learning the English language has received a serious setback and loss of direction. There has been a lack of systematic planning and failure to maintain minimum standards, borne out by the high percentage of failure at the SSC and HSC levels in English.
The dismal state of textbooks and abysmal standard of teaching are clearly manifest in the pattern of questions set by a certain board in the second paper of English (compulsory) in the last HSC examination. For instance, one sentence in the question paper reads: "Sometimes they give cash money and kinds for their wards." How can examinees understand and answer such flawed and puzzling questions.
One might also question the right of the paper setter to invoke religion in the domain of learning with a proposition that reads: "Parents shuttle to mazars and temples (monasteries and churches excluded in the question paper) and ---- for the examinees." The examinees are expected to fill up the blank space by choosing a word like "pray" amongst a host of words given for selection above the passage. Such statements might hurt the sentiments of other sections of the populace. Another sentence in question no 13 in the second paper reads: "Once the house of a rich man was infested with 'rates,' " not rats. Despite the fact that the examinees are able to make out what the paper setter wanted to mean, there should not be any such mistake in a final examination paper when it has passed through many expert hands and proper scrutiny before it was handed over to the examinees.
In this context, a glance at the English textbooks prescribed from the Primary to SSC to HSC levels would reveal a gloomy picture. In a word, these books, content-wise and language-wise, are bad selections. They also show poor judgment in selecting the topics. A young learner has to be encouraged to become something great in life and has to be taught to aim high. Topics concerning the lives and achievements of eminent personalities, great ideals and ideologies, important scientific discoveries, all challenging human activities leading to the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge should find a place in the young learner's textbook to inspire him, enliven and illuminate his horizon and enkindle his passion for a life ennobling in all aspects. These texts influence the young learner's mind indirectly and tend to bring about a resurgence of moral values, which are at such a low ebb in recent times. They must be inspired to aspire after a life illustrious and glorifying in all respects.
We may quote Disraeli: "The youth who does not look up will look down, and the spirit that does not soar is destined perhaps to grovel." We can't fathom why prose pieces like "Character" by Samuel Smiles, "Islam in Spain" by Syed Amir Ali, and poems like "The Daffodils" by William Wordsworth and "Ode to a Skylark" by P.B. Shelley were withdrawn from the textbooks in the SSC and HSC levels? These poems, like Rabindranath Tagore's poems, with their eternal appeal and lyrical symphony still ring out in the mind of the readers, transcending the barriers of nationality, religion and race.
The purpose of teaching English in our schools is to prepare a basic background for the students that will enable them to express their thoughts and feelings correctly in that language. That will need an infusion and appreciation of the rules of grammar at every stage from class 5 to class 10. We need hardly to emphasise that the objective in any language is to have an exalted style and a moving description of the scenario and facts tinged with some amount of literary grace, which is totally missing in the books prescribed these days. The considered view of many concerned with the decline of the English language teaching and learning is that wrong information and message and rules of grammar at the beginning of a student's career can cause tremendous harm.
Unquestionably true, it is at the secondary level that our students can build a strong base in English, and that objective can hardly be achieved if they are provided with a textbook that is mediocre and often full of mistakes. It is an almost absurd proposition to raise the standard of English in our traditional schools without making any attempt to improve the overall quality of education, which definitely calls for massive infrastructural development and strong logistical support.
Most of the schools, barring a few in the cities and towns, are lacking in basic minimum facilities, not to speak of enough qualified teachers on English. It is because of this festering malaise and inherent weaknesses that the past 30 plus years could not deliver any good in this arena of education The present government, determined to launch a new education policy must make some dent in this area by restructuring the infrastructural facilities for learning English. _Writer, Md. Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET.
