Dhaka Tribune | 05 October 2022

On October 5, people all across the world observe World Teachers Day. World Teacher’s Day was first observed on October 5 thanks to UNESCO Director-General Dr Frederick M Mayer’s historic declaration, which was based on a resolution made during the organization’s 26th session in 1994.

The day is observed to commemorate the contribution of teachers. Education International and its 401 member organizations play a key role in celebrating this day.

Teachers’ Day is a special day to show teachers how much we value them. It may also involve festivities to recognize their exceptional contributions to the society at large or to a specific field of study. In the opinion of Education International, it is crucial for the world to acknowledge a particular day at the national level, which is deserving of the proper acknowledgment of teachers working in social transformation. Building people is a teacher’s job. From the beginning, Bangladesh has recognized this day.

Teacher’s platform in Bangladesh

World Teacher’s Day is important for the recognition of the role of teachers. Teachers are the bearers and carriers of civilization. Due to the distinction between public and private education, inequality in the system has become obvious.

The largest group of victims of educational prejudice are non-government teachers. The way that teachers are paid varies greatly as well. Salary, allowances, and other benefits vary because madrasas, general education, and English-medium education are managed differently. Teachers at public institutions are paid according to a set schedule; this is not the case at private universities. A similar problem may be seen in elementary, secondary, and collegiate settings.

Due to their financial situation, non-government school and college professors are forced to live in hardship. The pay between government and non-government instructors in primary schools is drastically different.

For a very long time, non-MPO (Monthly Pay Oder) instructors have struggled to enroll in the MPO. Some instructors have recently signed up for the MPO. A management committee oversees non-government schools and colleges, and everyone is aware of the management committee’s unrestrained power, deceit, recruiting corruption, and political meddling. Neutral, highly educated, education-loving professors and erudite people are no longer to be found on any of these committees.

Talented young individuals in Bangladesh do not desire to enter the teaching profession for a variety of reasons. They do not find the motivation to pursue a career in this field, nor do they have any dreams for the future. However, according to the World Bank, if Bangladesh wishes to develop a competent population, it must offer qualified instructors. Low pay, low social standing, and a lack of basic amenities make this career unattractive to young people.

Educational condition in present day Bangladesh

Bangladesh ranked 112th out of 138 countries in the Global Knowledge Index 2020. In 2011, the literacy rate was 51.77%; today, it is 74.66%. The most recent census shows a 22.89% growth in the country’s literacy rate at a conference at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in Dhaka, where the main statistics from the Population and Housing Census 2022 were made public.

In Bangladesh, the majority of kids do not develop basic reading fluency. In a USAID-funded examination conducted in the spring of 2018, it was discovered that 27% of third graders and 44% of first graders cannot read comprehension-level texts. 20% of all pupils leave school before finishing the fifth grade due to these subpar learning results, which also lead to dropout and grade repetition.

Early-grades literacy problems also impede Bangladesh’s economic development, since the pipeline of young employees lacks the fundamental information and abilities needed to participate in a knowledge-based economy. In Bangladesh, USAID education initiatives have reached 1.3 million students in 5,112 schools throughout all seven divisions since 2013. More than 16,667 teachers received training in the teaching of early grade reading.

According to data from the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, the dropout rates at the basic, secondary, and upper secondary levels were 17.2%, 35.76%, and 21.16%, respectively in 2020. These dropouts mostly occur in rural regions. Many parents are hesitant to enroll their children in school because of the inadequate teaching standards and educational conditions there. Since neither the textbooks nor the curriculum is relevant to their circumstances or the demands of the contemporary labour market, they view the current educational system to be of little use in real life.

One of the 26 cadre services in the BCS is education. However, very few people want to start with this cadre. Numerous gifted young individuals work as university instructors, but subsequently leave the nation to pursue further education elsewhere. There, they begin earning huge wages as teachers. The brightest and most brilliant educators work in elementary schools in a perfect educational system. But in our nation, it’s clear that the situation is reversed.

A lovely society cannot be created without teachers’ conditions being improved. The government has recently been putting more emphasis on setting up technical schools and colleges in different upazila. The teaching profession has to be challenging and accountable. This requires proper evaluation of teachers, and a change in the way teachers are trained, and how they interact with students.