Primary Education in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has one of the biggest primary education systems in the world. There are 365,925 primary school teachers (approximately 55% of teachers and 25% of head teachers are women), working in more than 82,218 schools (with eleven different types of schools, including Madrasahs). The Government of Bangladesh recognises education as a means of reducing poverty and improving the quality of life for children. As a participant to the Agreement on the Rights of the Child, the Government of Bangladesh has made positive steps towards fulfilling children's rights to education, according to the Education for All and Millennium Development Goals with assistance from development partners. As a result, Bangladesh has made remarkable progress towards achieving universal primary education and gender parity in schools.

Despite many achievements during the past decade, major improvements are still needed in order for all children to receive the benefit of quality education. The major challenges include: poor quality of education; high dropout rates; decentralization of education administration; and special needs education. The quality of the teaching-learning process, the school environment and children's learning achievements are also major challenges. Poor qualifications and lack of teacher motivation are major challenges. A remarkable portion of government primary schools and registered non- government primary schools teachers are untrained. The traditional and dominant way of teaching in most schools tends to focus on memorizing facts. There is little emphasis on developing analytical, practical or vocational skills.

 

Recently government took different attempts to face the challenges and ensure quality education, with proper assistance of development partners. Such as, opened pre-primary with all primary schools and developed pre-primary curriculum, changed primary curriculum and textbooks, changed teacher education curriculum, recruited thousands of new and high qualified teachers etc. The Government provided free textbooks for all children in Bangladesh at the very beginning of the academic year.

Final Presentation

According to my feelings, my final presentation was little bit different than previous other presentations. In final presentation, most important think was to prepare presentation slides because of time limitation. But I tried my best to prepare every slide carefully and arrange logically discussing with some of our resourceful lab members. My presentation in JASME also was a good opportunity for me to take preparation for final presentation. Another most important preparation was practice presentation and getting feedback from Baba sensei. I am really grateful to sensei for his intensive attention in my practice presentation and valuable suggestions. I think I was well prepared for my final presentation. Before my presentation I was little bit worried and felt presser but I was hopeful and confident about my presentation because of my preparation.

During my presentation I did not lose my confident. Beside this I tried to read the facial expression of the senses and other audience. After presentation I didn’t feel happy, because I missed 1 slide to present within allocated time. I received only two questions from two senses. Their questions were not difficult for me to answer. I felt happy after getting some good comments about my presentation from Baba sensei and some other senses after afterward.

 I do feel proud as members of Baba lab. I am highly pleased to sensei and all of the members in our lab for their cordial supports, valuable comments and suggestions.   

Bangladesh achieved tremendous success in enrollment of girls at the primary schools

 

Bangladesh remains to score good grades in achieving the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of gender parity in education by 2015, with the movement of more girls than boys attending primary schools accelerating recent years. Early estimates for the accounting year that ended March show an enrolment ratio of 52:48 favoring girls, which is consistent with the trend since 2010 when girls overtook boys in primary school enrolment. Not only had the enrolment girls’ students also achieved better performance than boys in the primary completion examination 2012.

 

"Eliminating gender disparity in primary education by Bangladesh, recognized worldwide, is the result of strong political commitment," recruiting more female teachers, involving non-government organizations (NGOs), and paying out cash subsidy are among interventions that helped turn around the situation of a decade ago when schooling for girls was unthinkable in parts of Bangladesh because of social and religious barricades.

 

One of the big reasons for the better performance of girls than boys is primary school teachers’ recruitment policy

Government of Bangladesh changed for primary school teacher recruitment policy which was issued in August 1983. This policy was followed until 1990 when the revised recruitment rules, incorporating a 60 percent quota and lower qualification for female teachers, were established and published. The present recruitment rules allow a male candidate must have graduation degree from a College/University. A female candidate with a Senior School Certificate (SSC), and a minimum standing of a 'Second Division Pass', can apply for a primary school teaching post. An SSC is obtained after the completion of 10 years of schooling. In 1991 the government revised the requisite qualifications for the female candidates to attract more female teachers to the profession.

Games of Bangladesh

Bangladesh is not a major sporting power in any sense around the world. But sports and games form an indispensable part of Bangladeshi's life. In everywhere around the country one might see boys playing football, or playing cricket.

Cricket

 

Womens' cricket 

 

Now cricket is the most popular sport in Bangladesh. In 2000, the Bangladeshi cricket team achieved test cricket status from ICC. There are only nine test playing countries in the world. Bangladeshi girls cricket team also playing very well in the international cricket. In Bangladesh second popular game is football. Although Bangladeshi football team is not strong enough in the world but it is very popular everywhere around the country.

 

Football

 

Kabadi

 

Beside these there are many kinds of games in Bangladesh. In accordance to the popularity there are many other popular games include  football,  hockey, tennis, badminton, handball, volleyball, chess, carrom games, and kabadi ( a seven-a-side team-sport played without a ball or any other equipment, which is the national sport of Bangladesh)

Beside these there are many local area base games around the country. Such as dariabanda, gollasut, chargunti, dangoli, polamunji etc

Dariabanda

Bangladeshi Curry party with Math LAB Members

We (me and Subadi) arranged a Bangladeshi curry party with professor and all of the Math LAB members of IDEC in October 4, 2012. Usually Bangladeshi curry is very delicious but little bit spicy. I cooked three types of curry and rice for them in that day. I used little spice to make the curry because they (Japanese and others) are not so habituated to eat spicy curry. One of my Bangladeshi friends Dr. Md. Nazrul Islam Mondal, researcher in Engineering faculty, Hiroshima University and Mr. Subadi helped me  a lot to cook these curries. According to the opinion of professor and other members, all of the curries were so delicious and not so hot (spice). Especially professor Baba is very familiar with Bangladeshi foods as he had so many experiences with those. He mentioned that the curries look like Bangladeshi but test is little bit different because of spice.

 

I am happy to arrange that curry party. On behalf of me and Mr. Subadi heartfelt thanks to professor and lab members to enjoy that curry party.

Bangladesh

Bangladesh is full-filled with many natural beauties. The vast Bay of Bengal is situated in the south of Bangladesh.

In Bangladesh, every day we wake up by hearing birds singing. The natural scenery of village draw a general picture of inspiring. A little Jonaki Poka makes the dark night beautiful. There are many big and small rivers around the country, The Padma, the Meghna, the Jamuna, and the Kornafuly etc. Rivers make Bangladesh more beautiful.

There are six seasons in Bangladesh namely: summer season, rainy season, autumn season, winter season, and spring season. Summer season is very hot. During this time whole nature remains ‘kha kha’.But this time lots of different kinds of juicy fruits are found everywhere around the country. Like as mango, jack-fruit, litchi, pine-apple etc.

After the summer season rainy season comes. After the rainy season autumn comes. In this season all time the white clouds remain in the sky. Different kinds of flowers are found in this season. After the autumn season late autumn (Hemanto) comes. This time temperature is getting cool. In the late autumn villagers get a plenty of golden rice in their houses and they very happy this time. Sometimes villagers arrange a party for getting new crops. This party called as Nobanno Utshob.  After the late autumn season winter comes with the dew drops and trees without leaves, various kinds of pitha(homemade cake) and juice etc. The spring comes with cuckoo’s singing. Different kinds of many flowers bloom in this season. In Bangladesh, It is called the king of the seasons. Bangladesh is decorated by different natural beauties in every season.

 The climate of Bangladesh is mostly stanch by its location in the tropical monsoon region: high temperature, heavy rainfall, often extreme humidity and distinct seasonal disparities, the reversal of the wind circulation between summer and winter is another important feature of the climate of the country. The annual average temperature in Bangladesh remains at about a maximum of 35 C and minimum of 16 C. The average amount of rainfall remains at 4.30 mm.

Writing text book

(It’s a new and very good experience to me)

 In September 2011 I formed a small group with some of the members of Baba lab for writing some sample chapters of elementary mathematics textbook for Bangladesh according to Baba sensei’s instruction. Before that I had to select grade and chapters. I selected 4 chapters from grade-ii that were Place value, Multiplication, Division and Geometry. After that I selected writer of each chapter according to their interest such as Ishi san was for multiplication, Arai san was for geometry, NKhata san was for division and me (Khan) was for place value. Actually that time I had no any experience about what I would have to do for writing chapters. I can remember that with the guidance of Baba sensei I prepared a tentative plan for writing the chapters and shared it with all of the members. I also collected English version existing Bangladeshi grade-ii mathematics textbook (that time), teaching package, mathematics curriculum and provided to the members. After that we started writing our chapters. But it was really an exciting experience to me for much reason. During the time of writing the chapter and leading the group I have learnt many things such as what important issues have to consider for writing, how to use computer for writing and drawing etc.

  

　We (4 members) conducted meeting many times with Baba sensei for discussion about our progress and getting feedback according to the tentative plan. We also shared with Professor Nino Miah and JICA experts Koji Takahashi San for finalize our chapters. It was really a very good experience for me and I think other members also.

Again In January 2012 I formed a big group with maximum of the members of Baba’s lab for writing grade-I mathematics textbook. Before that I prepared a list of topics for grade-I textbook considering international aspect and finalized the list discussed with Baba sensei. After that I selected one chapter for each member according to their interest. In favor of writing the textbook I provide necessary supplementary materials to every member. That time I also prepared a tentative plan for writing textbook and shared it to every related person. Besides these I developed a format of writing textbook with consulting some of the members and sensei. I provided this format to every member and requested them to follow the format to maintain uniformity in all chapters. I think that was another important issue for writing textbook.

　According to our tentative plan we finished our first draft of writing and conducted a meeting with sensei and received feedback. Maximum members already finished their second draft of writing according to the Baba sensei’s feedback. I already sent 5 chapters to Bangladesh for piloting according to Baba sensei’s instruction. I hope with in very short time we can finish our writing. In future I think this experience will be very helpful for me to provide good contribution in future elementary textbook of Bangladesh.

Master Seminar Presentation: My impression

　　　According to my feelings this presentation was different than my previous other presentations. I think data analysis is a very crucial issue for conducting a research successfully. Before preparing my presentation I was worried about analysis of data. I think all of the members in our lab are very resourceful. I tried my best to prepare every slide carefully and arrange logically discussing with some of our resourceful lab members. Before my presentation I was little bit worried and felt presser on the other hand I thought that it was a very good opportunity for me to polish everything in my research.  I was hopeful that I will get valuable feedback from the lab members to reconsider many things in my research. 

　　　During my presentation I did not lose my confident. Beside this I tried to read the facial expression of two senses and other lab members. I think questions and answers are more difficult than presentation After Gonzalez san’s comments and questions I felt comfortable. I have learnt many things about conducting a research from the questions and comments of senses and other lab members. I have learnt how to relate every step logically and sequentially. 

   My research tittle is “Teachers’ Perception about Students’ Misconception on Word Problems and Their Influential Factors at Elementary Level in Bangladesh”. After getting feedback now I can realize that I have to change little bit in my research tittle and rearrange guiding questions and objectives. I think it’s a great opportunity for me to make presentation in Baba lab. I do feel proud as members of Baba lab. I am highly pleased to senses and all the members for their comments and questions.