All books ought to be original
needs and public interest. They are to be taken every year as a top priority
without any time-bar till every library has at least five books. And nothing
can be so principled as to fix the number of books to be selected on the basis
of price. Every sensible person, I think, would agree with me that books
including the number of books are to be chosen because of their quality and
importance for the public and the nation. As a second priority it is good and
desirable to select creative works though they do not fulfill the above
conditions to encourage creative activity. But they as well as children’s books
should be bought every two or three years. Literary works depicting human life
and Bangladesh
life must be life-size. A collection of articles or essays like the author’s An
Essay Book of National Importance must be in the top priority list. Every three
year at least, books taken are required to be reviewed in accordance with
feedback, newly emerged conditions, requirements, budget, etc.
The government’s selection
committee should be dominated by experts and well-informed persons of relevant
subjects. The opinions of literary not well-versed in literature cannot be
reliable. Still their inclusion in the committee is worth having. The present
selection committee consists of nine members. Most of them are officials and
have little time to go through books. Cursory glance or reading titles or lists
of books should not be the criterion for such matters of vital importance. Even
the members are not knowledgeable. And yet expertise is not sought from
specialists. And what is of great necessity is that guidelines or principles or
criteria for the selection of books by experts and men of great learning at the
highest level that is at the national level.
As quality books, standard
knowledge, authentic information or quality learning materials are an essential
condition of quality education, there should be no bar to have those from any
source or author. And NCTB and its Independent Text-book Evaluation Committee
are a harmful influence, an unwelcome sign of control and regulation, a bar to
free and independent flow of information and knowledge. Members of ITEC are
officials who have little time and no or little expert knowledge to do justice
to such vital matters. They are chief sources of corruption and are the cause
of corruption in the educational institutions in our country. They are
vulnerable to wire-pulling of high-ups, ministers, politicians and persons of
vested interests. Their greatest wrong-doing is that they are the sole agency
for low quality education particularly up to intermediate grade and they set a
standard by laying the foundations of learning in the earlier stages at the
primary stage, a standard which is considerably below the desired level. That
stage becomes the measure for secondary education which in turn, shapes the
yardstick for education at HSC. Thus the law standard is maintained through all
the stages. Low quality teachers manage teachers at these tiers. It is not felt
that highly proficient teachers are needed. And teachers a re following
universities as their models. Those pre-degree or pre-university standards
again determine the standard of education, i.e. a low standard for which
universities and their teachers boast vainly. The universities and their
teachers do not try or go for bettering their standard. As a result, the
teachers become complacent and conceited even though who have the highest
degrees continue their research activity and devote their life to further
progress or advancement of their learning as the case with most teachers of the
West.
A recent statement in December
2009 by a NCTB chairman will vindicate the views. He said that student should
be allowed to study only those books published and approved by NCTB and ITEC.
Because if a student of class VII reads the books of class IX what books will
he read when he is promoted to that class and books for each class were written
according to the learning ability of each age-group. And the ministry of
education supported it. That it is absurd, is only too obvious. It could be
said conversely that if a student of class VII can study books of class IX and
get better marks than from those of his own class, than what is the harm? We
know that age group learning capacity is determined by the average learning
ability of an age group, not for the good or brilliant students. And it does
not give any scope to average students to improve by getting better information
or knowledge and not at all to good student who have to suffer with mediocre
learning materials by the imposition of NCTB. I an sure and any sensible person will think so that those who
obtain a GPA of 4 or 5 in SSC and HSC have not got them by studying text-books
of NCTB only. They secure them either through studying books meant for higher
classes or from different first-rate sources of knowledge. In such situation
there is hardly any reason why NCTB should play role in quality education. If
NCTB is to exist, its functions should be absolutely for the prescription of
syllabuses and related activities and publishing books following the
syllabuses. The educational institutions should under no circumstances, be
directed and compelled to buy only the textbook board’s books, even though, the
board supplies books free to primary schools. While government publications can
be helpful for regulation of prices of books in the country, those must be of
high standard. That may be ensured through keen competition of the highest number
of competent writers and selected by a committee of outstanding learning and
subject experts and specialists at the national level. To allure the
well-qualified and well-informed writers, higher remuneration may be offered.
NCTB may also be entrusted with the responsibility to oversee that learning
materials published by any other source does not contain anything prejudicial
to our country. Then it can prohibit the publication or ask the writer to
expunge the objectionable materials.
The selection and supply of books
to educational institutions by the ministry of education and its project
offices follow more or less the procedures of Jatiya Grantha Kendra and public
library without realizing their fundamental difference. Public libraries or
other non-educational libraries are principally for the educated and operate as
supernumerary agencies or suppliers of supplementary facilities. But books or
libraries in the lower tiers of education providing foundation course are
necessary and obligatory. They are for children’s mental and character
development, for fostering emotional and moral qualities that make a person. At
these levels education is to equip the learners with intelligence and knowledge
for self-improvement and self-government, to make them handle situations and
problems of life in the best possible way for a better and useful individual
and social life. A part from that base sows the seeds of national character
Bangladeshi entity, cultures, our ideologies, aspirations and goals. So utmost
care, caution and expertise are necessary in this regard.
In the project-development of
selected colleges (government and non-government) under the ministry of
education Tk 2.40 crore was spent to purchase books for libraries of government
colleges, but not for private colleges although the latter’s need was most
pressing and development of their libraries was a must. And books were selected
not by principles or guidelines but by wire pulling of corrupt politicians and
bureaucrats. Books procured were of low standard and useless and at a very high
price. For instance, a French woman wrote a book with pictures, descriptions,
etc about a rickshaw puller. Each book was bought for Tk 1,000 and two each of
the 152 government colleges and what was stunning, and it is no wonder, is that
those books worth Tk 2.40 crore were later on declared worthless and of no use.
Another example of corruption and exorbitant price and utter unsuitability for
the secondary school students is the purchase of 2,317 sets of Bangladeshis Swadhinata
Juddher Dalil Patra edited by Hasan Hafizur Rahman. The price of each set was
quoted at Tk 15,000 although it could not have been more than Tk 3,000 of Tk
4,000. The sets were given, it is said, as reference books for general
knowledge of students. The responsibility for buying those sets was given to
the information ministry, not to education ministry.
