THE fag end of Secondary School Certificate and equivalent examinations have seen record number of student having been from the examinations halls that actually began with the first day when 26,928 students were absent although registered for the examiantios. The examinations began on April 10 and the theoretical exams ended on May 13 and that day 31,55 students were absent; out of them 16,359 were under the general education boards and 11,647 under the madrassah board and 3,049 under the technical education board. The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education, Dhaka issued letters on April 22 to institutional heads to learn about the reasons so many student did not take the public examination.
The Dhaka board analysis says that though it has not finished its analysis, early marriage and early employment because of poverty and social insecurity have stopped an exceptionally large number of students from taking the secondary-level final examinations. Poverty may not have suddenly stopped som many students from taking the pubic examinations this year. It has, rather, been a long-drawn issue. Even poor people allow their children to take public examinations at any cost. The board鈥檚 analysis points out another reason which is early marriage that also did not happen suddenly to stop girls from taking the examinations.
Early marriage happens to most of the girls, not boys. But, but more boys than girls were absent from examinations halls. Social safety stands as a big issue for growing girls in some areas. However, it stops them going to school regularly but necessarily not taking the public examination. Education officials and teachers seem to be hardly bothered about the issue. When education boards have asked them to find the reasons, they have placed some reasons which cannot be held as prime factors for this big, sudden issue. There must have be some bigger social issues that have not come to the fore.
The English Teachers鈥� Association of Bangladesh has tried to find out the reasons and it has found some reasons. Students have developed the habit of not remaining present in usual classrooms as well. Those who remain present today miss classes the next day and it continues for several days together. No accountability has been established in this area. When students remain absent from the class, schools should take punitive measures in the form of fine or token punishment that most schools cannot impose now because of changed perspective of the country. Students鈥� irregularity and sluggishness began to happen about two decades ago that culminated during the period of the Awami League鈥檚 regime.
Schools and teachers became quite helpless before influential people and local leaders. Students even did not take even the internal school examinations. They did not, and still do not, want to undergo any kind of work. They only want to pass. Students should remain under the guidance of teachers, guardians and society till Class XII that has slackened seriously and its adverse effect has started coming up in the form of remaining absent from public examinations as these students do in their internal examinations as well. They do not take it seriously at all. They know that nothing will happen to them.
Some students in the capital say that their parents do not get up early in the morning. As they get up late, so do the students; and, they cannot attend the classes timely or remain absent. Similarly, they remain absent from school examinations and nothing happens to them that has reached up to public examination, too. It is the ugly touch of social unrest and crumbling values. Some of official decisions have sometimes even added fuel to it. Opportunities are unfolded before students to register for public examination three or four times a year that appears as a great threat to educational institutions as the students who remain absent from the classes do not qualify at all to be sent for public examinations. It makes the institutions weak and helpless and convinces unruly students that institutions can do nothing with them. So, they can do whatever they like. But after going to the examinations halls, when they see that the questions are unknown to them, they do not go to the centres the next day. Many students hope to copy in the examinations hall. However, if the situation suddenly changes for some reasons such as guards of the hall being strict, people from the administration frequently visiting the centers and halls, they become discouraged from taking the next examinations. Responsibility and accountability develop at home and school and both the places have miserably failed to instill these qualities in them.
Renowned educational institutions arrange for special classes for students after the test examinations and make it mandatory for all students to attend and they impose strict rules on them. As students from conscious families study there, they somehow manage the affair but the same does not happen in the comparatively weak and poor-quality institutions as they fail to impose such restrictions on students. So, they remain absent from the internal examinations and they now have started remaining absent from public examinations as well.
Nurturing students proves to be a collective effort of the guardians, teachers, institutions and society at large. But today鈥檚 guardians cannot give time to their children and visit schools, speak to teachers because they remain busy professionally. Some guardians think it to be the entire responsibility of the schools and teachers to teach and build their children. Another group never visit schools and speak to teachers but they are arrogant and think that they pay for their children, so schools must do whatever they need. Yet another group is neither educated nor moneyed and not careful enough of the children. All these are the realities of society that we cannot change overnight. After accepting the realities, things must be made acceptable so that the children can be developed into proper human beings and resources. It is the collective failure that we could not make the students be present in the public examinations. The educational institutions, teachers and the state must come up with innovative ideas to address this issue.
Students must go to schools regularly. Without any valid and significant reason, no one must remain absent from classes. It is a serious bad habit that accompanies them throughout their life and its adverse effect starts appearing in various forms in the individual, familial and social life and levels. Educational institutions must be strengthened, but not in paper only. The ministry and boards must pass orders that no one would be allowed to interfere in the decisions of educational institutions. If it is not done, the crumbling values of society will turn into more serious which cannot be addressed. So, the sooner we think and make reasonable decisions, the better it is for us all.
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Masum Billah is president of the English Teachers鈥� Association of Bangladesh.
