Masum Billah
Recently in a meeting in Chattogram our Education Advisor has said,“ It will not take much time to change the country when education will touch all. Education makes humans modest and gentle. A student who gets education from his family and members of the family will never show pride, rather he will be modest. So, there should not be any business with education. Education is a proper channel of becoming real human beings that must be remembered by all.’’ I appreciate the nice words of our advisor and side by side want to draw his kind attention to the fact that our education has assumed a business shape many years back, it’s not a new phenomenon. It has not become in one or two days to come to this stage and not by the sweet will of a single individual. It has rather become commercial because of global stance on education, the idea of global village and industrialization and crumbling moral values.
When we cast our glance at the private universities of the country we see they are crowded with BBA and MBA courses avoiding the humanistic subject such as Literature, Geography, History, Religious Education, Philosophy and pure Science Subjects. Yes, private universities teach English but mostly it deals with language not literature indicating once again business. Here we know two streams work—language and literature. Here language is taught commercially just to cater to the needs of expanding business of local and multinational companies where people with communication are needed. Students study this language day and night as they failed to develop the real base of English in the school and college life. On the contrary, very few students study English literature and Bengali literature is absolutely absent here.
If students don’t read ‘The Dover Beech ‘of Mathew Arnold how they will learn the moral degradation of the society takes place. Arnold shows that people are now as confused as the two opposing armies who are fighting at night that means ignorantly and without thinking of its cruel consequences. Ignorant armies kill people causing destruction to this beautiful world. If they don’t read ‘ A Passage to India’ how they will learn what the British did during their rule this sub-continent. If they don’t read ‘ Kritodasher Hashi’ how they can learn the behaviour of the kings and queens, the behavioru of the people in power, how they become jealous of common peoples’ pure love and contentment! If they don’t read history, how they will enrich their connections with the past. Literature teaches and develops critical brain of the learners. It makes them humane and enables them to be critical analysts. Commercial subjects don’t develop these aspects of humans, they teach how to make business hoodwinking the people. Private universities and even now in public universities produce machine like human beings because of fattening the commercial aspects of education. Our universities produce BCS cadres means no creative people, no scientists and educationists!
Education is a big business that global entities do in the guise of social work and educating the children of third world countries. ‘Language business’—a big business indeed! The touch of this business has spread every vein and sub-veins of our country like many other developing ones. We can see this business in the micro level as well. In schools and colleges teachers teach English, actually they teach English in Bengali which stands far away from the real language development of the learners and even teachers themselves. By teaching this Bangladeshi English means just changing voice and narration and explaining these in Bengali , they ear a huge amount. It is another distorted form of English business! Education business! Students after passing the intermediate level means studying English for twelve years as a compulsory subject cannot express anything of own ( with a rare exceptions) either in speaking or in writing. Reading and listening skills are foreign to them. But big business goes on surrounding this subject! Thousands of teachers, teachers of other subjects, students of other subjects teach English. why? A big business lies here. But the victims ( students and guardians) never can fathom how much harm they are incurring teaching Bengali dominated English by these teachers! As business is concerned with this subject, all are hankering after it. When you call them for any social work, for any noble purpose their simple answer ‘ we have ‘ coaching, we have private students, how much money will you give? Etc. it clearly means they are engaged in business, they have no other concern!
BBA and MBA – to attract the customers and how to allure them. Do they teacher how to be enraptures? Just getting ready to have a job. Where is humanity, where is literature, where is mental food, where is morality? All are busy with business, all are busy with materialistic benefits and deals. If private universities could have blended both humanistic and commercial subjects it would have been an idealistic situation and that is truly necessary in this world today. We are producing doctors, why just for business! These doctors (may not be all) don’t know how talk to the patients, how to deal with the patients and their relatives joining with them. We are producing engineers, why just for business! They also don’t get any humanistic education, moral education and don’t develop any patriotic feeling. In service life they resort to illegal ways and means to make fortune. Before getting job, they try to go abroad and live there permanently. That is their ultimate dream. Here also means business!
If you conduct an interview on five hundred guardians about their plan with their children , all will mention different professions such as doctors, engineers, army officers, BCS officers, very few will say agriculturists and no one will say his son or daughter will be a teacher. Interestingly, all these guardians are searching for good teachers to give good education to their children so that they can be successful businessmen in future! This paradoxical or reverse situation prevails in the society. What’s the reason behind it?. All professions have direct or indirect business, social status and different facilities but teachers don’t have. So, no one opt for it. Whereas teachers build a society, if they are good and well-motivated, they really can contribute to bring about a positive change in the society.
Out students don’t read original textbooks, they read note and guidebooks that flood the market. Means business! Students, teachers, coaching centers all follow these guide books and boards, questions setters don’t go beyond it. They copy questions from guidebooks and from some particular guidebooks. Teachers in the school use these guidebooks because they get money from the companies, students buy these books even though these books seriously and harmfully restrict the creativity of the students. Still these books are very popular among the teachers, students, guardians, coaching centers, board questions setters. Nobody prepares any questions by themselves, they follow just the guidebooks. It means no practice of creativity, rather all business! There is no necessary of printing books by NCTB as students don’t use these, they get everything from guidebooks. Still NCTB remains awfully busy with publishing books because it’s a business!
Private and subject teachers further try to squeeze the syllabus to become more popular, to attract more students and guardians. why? They can makes students pass very easily , get very good grades without developing any conceptual idea, without learning anything in detail. That means they can make students pass and get grades commercially! They make students how to pass without touching the text, without learning anything, without understanding anything just their shortest and simplest notes and suggestion are enough. And these teachers are famous, known and moneyed men, means big business!
The advisor also said that our education should be joyful where there will be no competition as competitive education never creates ideal human beings. It sounds very nice and soothing that there should not be any competition in education and students will learn joyfully. It should have been said that there should be happy and sound competition in education, not unhealthy competition. It should be joyful but there must be tolerance and hard labour. Gaining knowledge by employing individual labour is enjoyable. Without trying to learn anything just aimless singing and dancing that was introduced in the previous curriculum which doomed students ‘ career and they have been relegated to several years back and the loss the they have incurred would take several more years to make it up. All these message and protests and criticisms were full of newspapers but the authorities turned a deaf year to all these. Why? Business. No student liked that new curriculum, no teacher could implement and no guardians accepted it. However, all these didn’t matter to NCTB. Why? It’s a matter of big business!
Business of various forms and types have tentacled education! Entire education system is a business! Education is producing businessmen of various types and forms. It rarely produces human beings, patriotic citizens. Big business has engulfed the entire education! How could we ignore it, that’s a big question now!
Writer: Former Teacher of Cadet College