Education for Children

By Benzir Shaon

 

Starting

Today “Education” has reached in such a position, that it must need to be ensured for all walks of life, all age of people. The way of education that makes someone educated is called the “education system”. It varies from person to person, age to age, lace to place. Among them to develop an education system for children is completely different & difficult. One difficulty for develop an education system for children is that, in childhood time a child primarily develop his own personality, thought & imaginations which is completely different from elder people. Another thing is that, we always neglect them and treat them as they are like us; they can do or think .like us. And that’s why they are deprived of the real education. The problem is actually lying in key makers. “We” are responsible for that education system that is wrongly developed by us is responsible for that.

 

 

The ‘Education’

The word “Education” has always came to us with different meanings. It’s actually the other name of learning and knowledge. It makes a person wise, it helps a person think more broadly and think in different and an innovative way. It’s a continuous process; it doesn’t happen in a day. It’s something like sharp any ones mind continuously. It happens by learning different things in a sophistic manner which is done by a teacher. This teacher may any one. As Rabindranath said, “The whole World is my School, Any everyone is my teacher.” And that was one of the causes that made him the Master of Poets of the World. Our Prophet Muhammad (SM) has said, “Seek knowledge from cradle to grave” , he also added, “Go China for knowledge.” As the name China came because, China was treated as the source of knowledge, source of inventions and source of technology. As it’s well known that a person can be changed with the magic touch of the light of education, knowledge so education has got priority in different civilized nations, great persons, especially by the Muslims and Islam. Different times it has tried to confined the area of learning within a syllabus. That most of the time hampered proper education. But the greatest persons always showed the path how knowledge should seek, such as: Ibn Sina. Education is a power that cannot be undone, it never ends, it only starts, only increases. The most interesting part of learning or education is that, “The more you give, the more you get. You will never lose, you will only gain.”. The definition of real education is really very broad; it’s not possible to confine the definition of education within in a short line.

 

 

What Is Education For Children

The education system for children is the proper education system that specially designed for children with the proper respect to their thoughts and ideas. As their thoughts are different so the instructor or the person who would teach the children will act like them so that he can mix with them easily. He must have to convince the children that he came to them as a friend from whom they can learn. He would also act for raising the curiosity of knowledge in children’s mind.

 

 

Age Range For Children

Age range for children is different in different countries or societies. According to United Nation Organization, those who are in between the age of 0 - 18 will be treated as children.

 

 

Our Different Education Systems: English Medium Schools VS Bangla Medium School VS Madrassa

Right now, our country is now following 3 different kinds of education. They are: Bangla Medium Education, English Medium Education and Arabic Medium Education which is well known as “Madrassa Education”. Now some white and black sides of these education systems will be described here.

 

 

Bangla Medium Education

Bangla Medium Education System is the most common education system in our country. The most schools and colleges are following this education system. According to this education system course materials are designed in Bangla, though there are subjects like Islamic or Religious Studies and English. But they are avoided and neglected with care. Actually the students cannot get the proper care for those ones. They face the problem of lack of knowledge in English when they go for higher studies. The reality is that, most of the books of higher education (study after HSC) are written in pure English, because most of the books are from foreign writers. Another thing is that, English is our second major language which is used in our daily life with much more enthusiasm. On the other hand because of lack of good teachers we are even depriving of learning correct Bangla, as a result we are always using a lot of wrong Bangla. So it happens that, the students from Bangla medium is learning nor Bangla nor English nor Religious Studies.

 

 

English Medium Education

In English Medium Education System students are taught in English. There Bangla and religious Studies are neglected most of the time. The grass root people cannot send their children to a school like that. Even the middle class family cannot send their children to a English Medium School . As it’s too much expensive, the rich can send their children to an English Medium School . In a school like that, they teach English by practicing, by conversation and writing. The grammar is neglected there, so that the students become week about the grammar of the language. But the good side is, as they learn English from early stage of life they can easily cope with the situation of studying English texts in higher studies. The teachers are friendly and the school is well equipped. The study materials are well designed. The education system is modernized. But the problem is, it is much costly and students deprived of Bangla language. And government has a few controls over there. So there is a problem of standardization also.

 

 

Arabic Medium Education

Arabic Medium Education is well known as “Madrassa Education” in our country. It has so many problems. There the education system is in Arabic language. From here a Muslim child learn about his Almighty, Rasul (SM), other rules and regulations about his religion. He has to memorize the Holy Quran. Bangla, English, and other different parts of education are roughly neglected here. The relation between the student and teacher is very far. Sometimes the children are mercilessly beaten by the teachers. Unfortunately, the educational environment is not very well. Those educational institutions are regulated by the government organization named “Madrassa Education Board”.

 

 

Some Hopes

Our government has taken many initiatives for the development for a well furnished and well organized education system for children. UNESCO is also funding a lot for that. To encourage the education from the grass root label in our rural areas the government has introduced the program named “Food for education”. Government has also made the girls education free from class 1 to HSC and for boys free education from class 1 to class 5. But the problem of drop-out is still there. It’s happening for the lack of social awareness and poverty.

 

Government has also some official programs such as: Scouting, Yellow Birds and Girl’s Guide. Dhaka City Corporation is trying to increase the number of playgrounds in Dhaka city, which is much important for the mental development of a child.

 

There are some different NGO’s and clubs those who are working hard for the development of Child education, such as : BRACK, ASHA, PROSHIKA, SHUCHONA etc. They are adopting different programs for children’s development and for the development of a Children Education System. Some clubs in Dhaka arranges Camps for children. In this camp a children do distant place from their home and learn something on real life.

 

 

Darkness Under The Lamp

The government, NGO’s, clubs, foreign NGO’s and governments are working hard but still there are some problems. The problems lies with our social awareness, our poverty, the government policy and government officer’s corruption. Specially for these causes we cannot reach the ultimate goal.

 

 

Some Recent Changes In Our Education System

Recently the Education Ministry of our government has brought some changes in traditional education system. In the year 2000 the government brought 2 basic changes in Bangla Medium Education System. According to that change the government declared that, from then the result will be published in grading system just like developed countries. It is done to restrict the ill competitions between students and their parents. At the same time government the government took a wrong decision, it was to start practice communicative English method, which is wrongly modernized face of another system. In the year 2005 the government took the step to make a change in our education system. According to that, a student has to study the texts of Science, Commerce and Arts group. But as there wasn’t adequate preparation from the part of government, the change has postponed for a year.

 

 

Where Are The Problems

The problems lie with the education system is that, firstly we are still following the wrong and traditional method of education system. Still now we couldn’t develop the relation of student and teachers. Still now there is a big gap between student and teacher. Hopefully, the gap is getting narrower in the institutions of higher studies, but unfortunately the gap is in primary schools are near the same. Secondly, we are blindly depending only on examination system. Examination is an easy way by which a student’s learning can easily been measured, but it should not be everything, there should be something like educational research or some other things more. Thirdly, the problem is our government policy. The policy is not much more flexible though from out side it seems very flexible. Fourthly, the problem is lack of fund for education. We are spending a lot for education from the fund of home n abroad but the biggest part of the fund is going to the pocket of government officers. The rest part of the fund is spending only the purpose of purchasing study materials, but unfortunately the most important part of a better learning environment is a good teacher. Teachers need better facilities, with better training and salary. Finally, our society hasn’t developed yet that people take the teaching profession as a noble one. Once, Professor Abdullah Abu Syeed asked to his students, “What’s your aim?”.  Different one given different opinion, but none of the replied that, “he or she wants to be a teacher”. He became astonished to see that. The problem lies with the salary, living standard and social negligence to that profession.

 

 

World At A Glance

The other countries of the World have changed themselves a lot in terms of child education. They have just come out from the traditional examination dependent education system. Yes, still there is a system of examination, but with that there are some other testing processes. Such as: interview, study related research and so on. There, teachers are very friendly with the students. The environment they create, so that the students learn from teachers not teachers teach, students take knowledge from the teacher. They have ensured the basic needs for good education for the children. Those are: food, education friendly environment, friendly and learned teachers, well equipped study materials, well designed, clear-cut course instruction and real life education. They are the mystery of better education system for children.

 

 

Are Our Children Ready To Fight With The World of 21^st Century

Our children are not prepared to compete with the children of other developed countries. But it’s also true if we try from now our children can be able to not only compete but also grab the highest honor, because our children is much more talent than other countries children. Recently the children those who has gone to abroad and studying there, are performing much better than the other foreign children.

 

 

More Developments: Some Recommendations

There is a chance to recover our children from a wrongly imposed education system if we try right now. Here there are some recommendations for the development of our education system for the children. Firstly, our teachers need adequate salary with a better training. Secondly, the good students should be encouraged by family, society and the government to join in such a noble profession like teaching. Thirdly, government needs to give the highest priority to teachers. Because a good teacher can give a good a nation as they teach the students with the knowledge of value, believe and different things. Fourthly, the co-curricular activities need to be practiced more for more psychological development. Fifthly, creativity enhancing programs should be arranged most frequently, so that the children or the students can develop their creativity with a fruitful way. Sixthly, the programs should be arranged which develops the imagination power of children. If the children think in an imaginative way, they will be more innovative in future. Because about all the new inventions has started just from an imagination. Finally, what is done in foreign countries is that, teach the students in such a way, so that the children can use their knowledge in their real life. Learning should be practical which relates with their aim or desire (what they actually want to be in future).

 

 

At The End

We are in various problems regarding to our food, housing, political issues, population. But the reality is that among those too many tensions and pressures we are still researching and developing and sharing our knowledge for the development of a well furnished education system for our children from where our children will be prepare themselves for competing with the best children of the world.

 

 

 

 

Mohakhali, Dhaka

Submission Date: December 11, 2005

 

An Assignment For Tahmina Begum, Course Instructor, Composition and Communication Skills (ENG 102), Department of English, East-West University , Dhaka