Universalization of Secondary Education: Questions for Discussion and Debate

Abstract

But expanding school enrollment with quality education remains a big challenge for us as is the case in India. We too have seen the gradual development of disparity between public schools delivering poor quality education to children from low income households and private schools providing better quality education to children from upper income households. We also have the divide between the vernacular medium schools and the English medium schools which are now attracting students not simply from upper middle income households but from middle and lower income households. We have the added challenge of rapid expansion of madrassa education where children from extremely poor households go because they can get free room and board. We face similar challenges of governance – lack of monitoring and accountability. Absenteeism of teachers, despite increase in salary, is a persistent problem. Professional bodies such as teachers’ associations are preoccupied with demands for increasing teachers’ salaries and do not pay much attention to issues concerning improvement of quality of education. However, despite our past experiences of being disappointed with the inadequacies of public policy responses, we still look forward to policies and actions from the state to address the myriad problems we face in the education sector. After all in a democracy such as India and Bangladesh citizens should be able to reasonably expect that public policies and actions will be geared towards improving the quality of education of the majority of the electorate. So some of the recent initiatives of the government of India such as the Right to Education Act, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhijan (RMSA), integration of Sarva Shiksha Abhijan (SSA) with RMSA and Teacher Training, and Integrated Scheme for School Education are very welcome news indeed. I look forward to learning more about the efficacy of these initiatives from your deliberations. After India passed the Right to Education Act in 2009, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) organized a seminar in Bangladesh and invited some of the Indian experts including Professor Govinda, in order to create an opportunity for them to share Indian experiences with Bangladeshi experts and our own minister of education in the hope that we can learn some lessons from India. In that spirit I am participating in this seminar in Delhi today and hope to carry back some lessons about what to do and what not to do in Bangladesh.