It is disconcerting to note that more than one and a half lakh teachers are teaching in different institutions without having the Bachelor of Education (B Ed) degree which is mandatory for teachers of government and non-government schools, colleges and madrasas. Reports tell us that over 40 per cent of our high schools cannot prepare creative questions and 55 per cent of teachers of primary schools do not understand critical education methods. Such a huge number of unskilled teachers are deteriorating the quality of education being imparted to students across the country. We must address the urgency of incorporating new training institutes and improving the functions of the existing ones.
The issue of teachers’ training is often being overlooked by the departments concerned in Bangladesh. Thousands of teachers are recruited every year and sent straight to classrooms without any training. This doesn't happen in most other countries.
It is teachers who alone can
contribute to build a healthy
academic sphere for a nation to
grow.
Teachers are professionals who require multiple skills to do their job, and accordingly we should also emphasize building professional standards into teacher training programmes. There must be a policy clarifying what training a teacher must undergo to impart education as professional. There is no substitute to building a robust pre-service teacher education system to help the country resolve the issue of the capacity of new teachers joining the schooling system. It is teachers who alone can contribute to build a healthy academic sphere for a nation to grow.
Question leak, unskilled teachers and inconsistency between the education system and job sector, low budgetary allocation are the main factors overwhelming our education sector for long. Many young students in Bangladesh, as in other low and middle-income countries, find it hard to get good jobs because of the sheer inconsistency between the education system and job market. The country should address this crisis by investing more in education and ensuring effective utilization of the investment.