Around 1,800 secondary schools are performing poorly or not at all, yet the teachers at such institutions are continuing to receive salaries from the public exchequer, the government has found.
Education ministry officials said that warnings will be sent to the heads of every blacklisted school. If the schools fail make improvements within a short period of time, the ministry will take tough action. Officials from the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) told The Independent that during a meeting with ministry officials last week, it was decided that the blacklisted institutions will be served with a warning notice.
Professor Md. Sirajul Haque, director of planning and development at DSHE said, “This is the first time we’ve heard about non-performing and poorly performing secondary schools. The list was prepared according to seven criteria and based on data collected by upazila secondary education officers and district education officers.”
They include teaching-learning environment, teachers’ professionalism, students’ performance, roles of institution’s management committee, leadership of heads of institutions, co-curricular activities and institution-community and guardian-teacher relationships.
Sirajul said there are 18,463 secondary schools in Bangladesh, although data was collected from 17,875. He added that the aim of preparing the blacklist was to improve the quality of education at sub-standard schools that are mostly located in remote, rural areas.
The list divided the country’s schools into nine zones, with the Rangpur zone having the most schools (392) and Comilla and Sylhet, with 75 each, having the least number of schools. Rajshahi zone has 333 schools, Barisal 278, Chittagong 109, Dhaka 139, Khulna 115 and Mymensingh 256.
Professor Noman-Ur-Rashid, director general of DSHE said he was surprised to learn that there are seven non-performing schools in Dhaka City. The schools include Mirpur Adarsha Biddanikoton, Moni Kankchon High School, Uttar Kalshi Adarsha Vidyapith, Sultan Mollah Adarsha High School, Mohakhali Model High School, D.M.L.S at Mirpur and Haji Syed Ali Khan High School.
-With The Independent input
