The academic year for students studying in primary and secondary schools is likely to be extended till February next in order to complete all their syllabus, sources said.
Currently formal teaching at schools is closed at all educational institutions including primary, secondary and higher secondary schools since March 17 due to coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
In this situation, the policy makers of the education ministry are working on two main options to recover from the losses of time in taking lessons in classes.
The first option is to reduce the syllabus, cancel all the holidays of the educational institution and end the academic year by December. The second option is to extend the current academic year (2020) till next February, which is most likely.
Many of the policymakers are said to be preferring the second option. In this case, the annual examination will be held in February 2021 instead of December 2020 and the next academic year (2021) will then obviously start in March, sources said.
According to education ministry sources, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has been given the responsibility by the Ministry of Education to decide what to do in this regard.
NCTB curriculum experts are against the first option. They have given opinion against reducing the syllabus.
According to experts, the syllabus of each class requires the prescribed skills and knowledge of that class in order to pass the next class. If the syllabus is reduced, the prescribed knowledge will not be achieved. This will disrupt the main purpose of education.
Besides, the students will not be able to obtain required knowledge if they complete the syllabus earlier than the given time. Therefore, experts are in favor of extending the academic year by at least two months.
NCTB Chairman Prof Narayan Chandra Saha told Bangladesh Post, “We have held several meetings to discuss the issue. There were senior officials including the Director General of the Department of Secondary and Higher Education and the Chairman of the Dhaka Board of Education. We have discussed on basically two proposals. But we are not going to move forward unless we get a rough idea of when would the crisis from coronavirus end.”
He also said, “NCTB had proposed to extend the current academic year to February next in case of opening educational institutions by August or September. In this case annual exam will be held in February. This will enable the students to read and learn well and advance to the next class. The next academic year will start from March 2021.”
“Alternative proposals have also submitted. It has been said that all the examinations will be completed by 2020 by shortening the syllabus and reducing optional leave. However, the NCTB will submit a final proposal to the Ministry of Education if it is known when the educational institution will be reopened,” he added.
Professor of Institute of Education and Research (IER) of Dhaka University, Dr Mohammad Ali Zinnah told Bangladesh Post, “There is no alternative to formal education. Our students do not have the habit of online education and television education. It will not be a wise decision to take examination by shortening the course.”
“Many people do not have television at home. On the other hand, Sangshad Television cannot be watched without cable dish line. In remote areas and poor students cannot afford to watch television and get dish-cable connection. Due to these reasons, these programs are not effective at all,” Educationalist Zinnah added.
About television class, President of Guardian Unity Forum (OvivabokOikkyo Forum) ZiaulKabirDulu, said, “Students do not have a mind in these classes. The same class is being republished repeatedly. Inadequate program construction, technical errors, serious errors in the accent of teachers have been observed.”
Meanwhile, The HSC and equivalent examinations were scheduled to start from April 1. But this test was postponed due to Corona crisis. Ministry of Education could not announce the date of any new schedule of examination.
As a result, about 12 lakh candidates are passing the day in uncertainty. Even though SSC and equivalent results was supposed to be published in the first week of this month, it has also been delayed.
Every year in the month of November, the fifth class final-PEC and eighth class final-JSC examination is held. But the educational institution has been closed for about two months.
Around four crore students are studying from pre-primary level to tertiary level in the country including around 1.73 crore in primary and around one crore in secondary levels.