THE vision of the primary education sector is to provide inclusive, qualitative learning to children. Interventions that were taken by the government couldn鈥檛 bring the desired outcome regarding providing quality learning to each and every child. If challenges can be identified properly, it can be easier to find out the ways of addressing them. Therefore, the authorities concerned need to identify the challenges in primary education for its need-based improvement. The following challenges may be considered to ensure quality improvement in teaching and children鈥檚 learning as well as infrastructural development of primary schools and development of management systems in primary education.
Many primary schools in the remote areas and many newly nationalised primary schools lack a sufficient number of teachers. Moreover, teachers of rural or remote area schools have the tendency of transferring themselves to urban schools, resulting in a huge number of vacancies year after year in the rural schools.听
Existing policy regarding entry level qualifications of teachers鈥� appointments (fresh graduates without having diploma/degree in education) hinder the newcomers to stay in this profession and perform duties gladly. Educators urge appointing teachers with diplomas or bachelor/master鈥檚 degrees in education or pre-service training on basic training for primary teachers from PTIs, considering the challenge of keeping newcomers in this profession and making the profession enjoyable.听
Teachers and supervisory officers face low pay and a lack of financial incentives, which impacts their motivation and job satisfaction. Low pay and benefits make it difficult to retain dedicated teachers or supervisors.
Teachers and supervisory officers feel a lack of motivation due to the limited opportunities for career growth. The primary education sector does not offer many options for advancement (regarding promotion, scale upgradation, etc), which can discourage teachers and supervisory education officers from performing at their best. A smooth career path keeping the provision of promotion from assistant teacher to mid- and top-level management may motivate teachers and supervisory officers to perform satisfactorily.
Teachers and supervisory officers in remote, hilly and low-lying areas feel monotonous in their jobs due to working in the same working places year after year. Existing transfer policy has no mandatory rules for their transfer into better or desired places after a certain period, which certainly demotivates them to work committedly.
Teaching at the primary level of education is the most challenging profession compared to other teaching professions. A primary school teacher needs to get a break after imparting one lesson for performing better quality听teaching in the classroom. Teachers need support from supervisory officers to improve teaching-learning activities. They also expect timely and complexity free听 administrative and financial services from education offices. But shortages and inadequate numbers (compared to huge volume of works) of supervisory officers and staffs create hurdle to their expectations.
Teachers are receiving multifarious training, but a few teachers apply achieved knowledge and skills in classroom teaching. This is because of a poor monitoring system. Supervisory officers are not considered to orient about the training contents/methods that teachers are receiving. They too have few opportunities for professional development.
The absence of running catch-up, before- or after-school programs for dropped-out and underprivileged children hinders the preparation of homework and next-day lessons as they have no learning support at home.听
Children need to be assessed frequently in the classrooms to identify their needs as well as to provide quick feedback for clarifying their understanding in lessons. Assessments focus more on memorisation rather than critical thinking, creativity and problem-solving, which does not prepare students well for future education. Moreover, there has been no mechanism for assessing children鈥檚 foundational learning skills in literacy and numeracy.
Effective classroom teaching requires sufficient time. Contact hours must, therefore, be increased at schools. To keep children for a long time at schools while ensuring their attention to classroom activities and removing malnutrition, a school feeding programme should be launched all over the country.听
During natural and man-made disasters, schools remain closed for a long time, resulting in learning losses for huge numbers of children who have no or poor learning support and atmosphere at home. Homeschooling, parental or community engagement, online teaching, etc, may be encouraged to combat unavoidable disturbances in children鈥檚 learning.听
Teachers and supervisors often have to balance administrative duties alongside their primary responsibilities. Excessive paperwork and non-teaching tasks reduce the time teachers can spend on planning lessons and taking preparations for quality teaching. A high volume of administrative tasks hampers supervisors鈥� main duties to perform properly and timely.
Due to poor mechanisms of accountability and motivation, teachers and supervisory officers are not performing satisfactorily. Performance assessments and motivational incentives or punitive actions may effectively encourage them to perform sincerely.
Monitoring officers may have too many schools to oversee or may lack the training to provide effective and constructive feedback to teachers. Limited visits or poor-quality supervision can hinder teachers鈥� improvement that eventually affects children鈥檚 learning.
Many primary schools, especially the newly nationalised primary schools, lack basic physical facilities, teaching aids and learning materials. Teachers often are to work in challenging environments with minimal support, which affects their motivation and ability to provide quality education.听
A good number of committed and experienced teachers and supervisory officers should have access to decision-making and policy development for making policies implementable and realistic.听
Still, some rural schools, particularly newly nationalised primary schools, have a shortage of adequate classrooms, a scarcity of wash blocks and safe water and an absence of electricity and internet facilities.
Addressing the aforesaid challenges requires a holistic approach, focusing on providing resources, reducing administrative burdens, capacity building, timely promotion and fair compensation for teachers and supervisors, increasing parental and community engagement and strengthening accountability and monitoring systems.
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Md Bayazid Khan is a primary education analyst.
