Educational institutions in name only, education quality poor

The tin shed building was wrecked two years ago. The building has not been rebuilt since. The Uttar Keshabpur Girls’ Dakhil Madrasa in Patuakhali’s Bauphal only exists on paper now and there is no structure in reality. The madrasa was established in 1988 but it’s not MPO-enlisted. While only one candidate took the Dakhil exams from this madrasa, he didn’t pass.

A teacher of the madrasa, Latufa Begum said that they had made only one student fill up the exam forms from their madrasa in an attempt to help the madrasa survive. Meanwhile, 14 students sat for the exam from MPO-enlisted Uttar Dashpara Dakhil Madrasa in the same upazila and none of them passed.

Not only these two madrasas, not even a single student of 51 schools and madrasas from across the country passed this year’s SSC and equivalent exams, the result of which was published last Sunday. Among these 51 educational institutes, 42 are madrasas while the remaining nine are schools.

After reviewing the SSC and HSC examination results from this year along with the results from the last couple of years it has been found that every year there are several educational institutes with none of their students passing in the exams. Most of the institutions with zero passing rates are madrasas. Besides, majority of such educational institutions are located in small towns.

These institutions run with a handful of students only. Even the facilities are limited. Except for a few, the remaining institutes are not even MPO-enlisted. However, some of the MPO-enlisted institutes are also seeing zero pass rates.

People concerned about education, local residents and guardians’ evaluation about these institutes is that there are no proper educational activities there. It needs to be considered if there’s any necessity of these educational institutes existing any further.

Education minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury is however against taking strict measures against educational institutions. In response to journalists’ question during the press conference held last Sunday on the occasion of SSC results being published, the minister said if the students of an educational institute fall behind, the educational institute has to be provided with even more support. But if the educational institutes fail to retain the number of students, government facilities won’t be continued.

Three of the nine schools with zero students passing out of them this year, fall under the Dhaka education board. All of them are from small towns. Of these, Somjani High School is located in Kalihati Upazila of Tangail. Total three students had participated in the exam from there and all of them have failed.

Teachers of the school that was established 30 years ago don’t come to the school since it hasn’t received MPO status even after such a long time. Going to the school around 2:00pm on Monday, the tin- shed of the school was found to be locked.

None of the teachers and students were found there. While speaking over the phone, acting head master of the school Abdur Razzak said that the teachers don’t want to stay here without any salary.

Local residents said that regular classes aren’t held in the school. Even when a few students come to school, none of the teachers do. Some of the local youths have been selected to take classes.   

Another such school is Begum Rupban High School. It’s located in Gior upazila of Manikganj. Ten students had taken the exam from this school, all of whom have failed. Meanwhile, nine students had sat for the exam from Charterotekia Mouza Girls’ High School located in Pakundia upazila of Kishoreganj and failed.  

Dhaka education board chairman professor Tapan Kumar Sarkar told Prothom Alo that the institutes with zero pass rates will be served show cause notice. If their responses aren’t satisfactory, their teaching approval will be revoked.

Two of the schools with zero passing rates come under the Rajshahi education board. These are located in Rajshahi’s Mohanpur and in Naogaon’s Atrai. Meanwhile, the other four schools with zero passing rates are located in Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Kurigram and Dinajpur districts that fall under the Dinajpur education board.

All the 42 madrasas from where none of the students have passed are located outside of Dhaka. For example, only one student had attended the exam from Beerkoya Dakhil Madrasa located in Bagmara upazila of Rajshaji that was established back in 1997.

Visiting the madrasa in person this Monday, it was found that portions of the concrete building of the madrasa had tin roofing while portions were left under the open sky. The field was littered with garbage and there were a few broken benches inside the classrooms. Basically, the institute has been sustained on paper only to retain the existence of the madrasa and to guard its assets.

The madrasa received teaching approval from the education board back in 2000. However, the teachers and employees left at one point as it didn’t receive MPO status. Rafatullah, head master of Beerkoya Lower Secondary Girls’ School, located in the same area told Prothom Alo that he is the one keeping the name and existence of the institute going.

Some poor students are made to attend the exams from that madrasa in exchange of bearing all of their educational costs. The institute has some assets to its name. If it gets shut down, all will be snatched, he added.

Meanwhile, no candidates passed from four madrasas in Gafargaon upazila of Mymensingh. The number of students participating in the exams from these madrasas ranged from eight to eighteen.

Analysis of the result data showed that the passing rates in 105 educational institutes range within 10 per cent. There are 143 educational institutes with the passing rates between 10 to 20 per cent.

Meanwhile, 1,795 educational institutes have their passing rates ranging from 20 till 50 per cent. The number of educational institutes having the passing rates between 50 to below 100 per cent is 24,804 while, total 2,968 educational institutes have 100 per cent passing rates.

Former chairman of Dhaka education board, profressor Md Ziaul Haque told Prothom Alo that the educational institutes with zero passing rates have a very low number of students and candidates in them. The reason behind this is that, there are a lot of issues in these institutes including the lack of facilities, shortage of teachers and so on.

So after reviewing the results from the last few years, if it is noticed that these educational institutes aren’t performing well on a regular basis it is better to shut them down, he believes.

(Kamonashish Shekhor from Tanghail, Mamunur Rashid from Bagmara and ABM Mizanur Rahman from Bauphal have helped writing this report with information)

*This report appeared n the print and online versions of Prothom Alo an has been rewritten in English by Nourin Ahmed Monisha.