Many students at privately-run secondary schools are not collecting their assignments

Only 180 secondary school students out of 400 at the privately-run Rose Garden High School, in the capital's Jatrabari area, are collecting their assignments. The rest of the students are out of touch with their studies.

As a result, the school is not able to evaluate and identify the weaknesses of at least 55% of its students.

The Business Standard has talked to the teachers of several privately-run and Monthly Pay Order (MPO) listed secondary schools and found that the number of students and guardians reluctant to collect their assignments is greater at private schools.  

The students and their guardians are not collecting the assignment sheets, arguing that there is no need to study more as the government has already automatically promoted all the students to the next level.

Further, a reluctance to pay tuition fees was another reason for not collecting assignment sheets from the schools, said the schools' authorities and several associations of private schools.

Education experts think that the education ministry will not be able to maintain the quality of education, once schools are reopened, if students' assessments are not done through the assignments.

Manzoor Ahmed, Professor Emeritus of Brac University, told TBS that quality education will be hampered if the government fails to identify the weaknesses of the students.

"It is a good initiative by the education ministry to start the evaluation through the assignments. But participation of all students must be ensured," he said.

The government started the process of giving secondary students assignments from 1 November in the absence of annual examinations.

Assignments will be given to school and madrasa students every week to identify their shortcomings so that authorities can take remedial steps in this regard.

The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) has already provided five assignments to secondary schools. The sixth assignment will be sent by Sunday.  

Mizanur Rahman Sarker, secretary general of the Bangladesh Kindergarten Association, told The Business Standard that their teachers have been unable to convince students' guardians about the necessity of taking assignments. Instead, the guardians take their calls in a negative way.

"We have been requesting that the students and their guardians come to the school. But we get negative responses from them. Several guardians have said that as the government promoted the students automatically, they do not understand why assignments are needed," he said.

Nizam Uddin, founder and head teacher of Anjuman Model High School at Adabar in the capital, said his school had 300 students at the secondary level. Of the 300, only 100 students have maintained communication with the school and taken their assignments.

"We have tried to convince them but failed," he said.

Jahangir Hossain, founder of Bright Star Bidyaniketon and High School in the capital's Sayedabad area, said there were 150 students from class VI to class X at the school.

But all the students are out of touch and they are not contacting the schools to pick up their assignments.

However, the teachers have been trying to convince the students and their guardians, over the phone, to collect their assignments.

Meanwhile, the scenario of MPO-listed schools is better than that of privately run schools.

Basantapur Co-Operative High School in Rajbari Sadar upazila has 553 students at the secondary level.

All but 50 of the students are taking their assignments.

A head teacher of a secondary school in Bhola, wishing to remain anonymous, said 70% of the students of his school are receiving their assignments.

Prof Belal Hossain, director general of the directorate of secondary and higher education (DSHE), said they have directed the teachers to provide assignments to all the students.

"The head teachers are responsible for everything. We will seek the evaluation results any day after 31 December," he said.

There are a total of 8,000 privately operated secondary schools in the country.

According to several associations of private schools, 10 lakh students are studying at the schools.

At least five to six lakh secondary students out of 10 lakh are not receiving their assignment sheets.

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Education and Statistics,  about 1.05 crore students are studying at government, MPO-listed and privately run secondary schools and madrasas across the country. Of them, about 87.32 lakh are in schools and the rest are in madrasas.

On 16 March, the education ministry announced the government's decision to keep all educational institutions and coaching centres shut from 18 March to 31 March due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Under the circumstances, this year's Primary Education Completion (PEC), Ebtedayee, Junior School Certificate (JSC), Junior Dakhil Certificate (JDC), and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations were cancelled.

The government has already announced its decision to promote PEC and JSC examinees to the next grade without holding examinations.

The results of HSC examinees will be evaluated based on their JSC and Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations' scores.

Though classes have remained suspended since March 18, the administrative activities of educational institutions have gradually resumed.

The government recently extended the closure of all educational institutions till 14 November.