Bashir Ahmed Bhuiyan Leading University, Sylhet, BANGLADESH E-mail: bashir.dba1970@gmail and

1. THE STRATEGIC PRIORITY FOR THE PRIMARY EDUCATION DEVELOPMENT IN BANGLADESH: FROM DIVERGENCE TO THE CONVERGENCE OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL INSTITUTIONS AS OPTION Bashir Ahmed Bhuiyan Leading University, Sylhet, BANGLADESH E-mail: bashir.dba1970@gmail.com and Sofe Ahmed Sylhet Ideal College,Sylhet, BANGLADESH E-mail: sofeahmed@gmail.com

2. Outline • Introduction • Importance of Primary Education •  The Historical Background of Primary Education in Bangladesh: From Ancient to the Pakistan Period • The Evolution of Education Policies in the Bangladesh Regime: The Analysis of Divergence • The Diversity of the Educational Institutions at the Primary School Level • The Analysis of Gap and Relevant Suggestions for Removal of Discrepancies • Religion and Education: Whether Contradictory or Complementary to Each Other • Importance of Convergence • Conclusion • References

3. Introduction • Education is inevitable for any modern and progressive society. • The term education takes different meanings like to bring up, to train, to mould, to lead by giving instruction, to develop the inner capacity or dormant talents, to change from within, to teach according to need and necessity. • Education aids the development and expansion of the physical, mental, as well as inner capacity and strength of a human child. • Education is the essential tools for developing human beings’ mind, body, soul, understanding, attitudes, and all other humanly features, which human beings need in order to lead their personal, family, social, economic and political lives and to accomplish all the aspirations of life.

4. Importance of Primary Education - The Why? • Primary education is considered as foundation stone of education process, throughout the human life, to develop a person competent citizen. • It is the initial step to take advantage of future education opportunities and lifelong skills. • Primary education enables people to participate in the socio-economic and political activities of a community to their fullest extent through the knowledge and skills development. • It is attributed as the foundation for the economic growth and instrumental to the attainment of other developmental objectives including all humanoid-religious goals and liberty.

5. Motivation and objectives of the Study • Main objective of the present study is to explore primary education development scenario in Bangladesh with its divergent history. • After exploring the divergent history the study identifies reasons for divergence and suggests important strategic options to lead the country towards the universal primary education . • The study provides the future guidelines to prepare students for further study in the multi-oriental disciplines to contribute to the future diverse sectors of the country by integrating the concept of universality in primary education systems. • At the end the study suggests important options for primary education development in Bangladesh by integrating all conflicting philosophies into the one integrated model.

6. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH: FROM ANCIENT TO THE PAKISTAN PERIOD • At the initial stage primary education in the Indian sub-continent was started by a professional group belonging to a particular caste in Vedic age. • With the arrival of Islam in India education in general and specifically, the primary education underwent tremendous changes . • The Muslim missionaries that came at the time of Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) first attempted to educate people some religious lessons, although, other view that at the time of KhalifaUmar some Muslim visitors came here to promote Islam and took some initiatives to educate the people of India.

7. THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF PRIMARY EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH: FROM ANCIENT TO THE PAKISTAN PERIOD • In pioneering education some notable Muslim rulers, religious intelligentsia (ulama), and the pundits of different disciplines played significant roles to spread education in the then Indian Sub continent especially in present Bangladesh (Uddin; 2005: 69-77). • During the 200 years of British period a number of commissions worked for the development of primary education, especially to promote the concept of secular education in the Indian sub continent. • In the period of Pakistan a number of education commissions had also worked for the advancement of primary education although none of these commissions could achieve the desired level of success due to their divergence and disintegration in different periods.

8. THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION POLICIES IN BANGLADESH REGIME • Bangladesh has undergone different changes to realize the objective of primary education development through formulation and implementation of policies in different regimes by different commissions or committees. • But, no commission could achieve the expected goals of universal primary education that may generate benefits for all irrespective of caste, creed and classes in the society. Rather each of the commissions raised new controversies without studying the sequential effect of the application of previous policies and contemporary needs of the society.

9. THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION POLICIES IN BANGLADESH REGIME • Every commission designed education policies according to their own way for patronization of the government of specific period. • Therefore, due to frequent changes in the formulation and application ultimately no policy was effective, rather different streams of education with different philosophies have been found to practice. • As a result of this controversy in the primary level eleven curriculums are now working with eleven different philosophies of education. • In addition, some other institutions like ‘Kawmi Madrasah’ and ‘Pre-primary Education’ conducted by the Islamic Foundation also work with their distinct ideologies and thoughts.

10. THE EVOLUTION OF EDUCATION POLICIES IN BANGLADESH REGIME The notable commissions and committees that have been formed under the reign of different governments are:

11. THE DIVERSITY OF THE EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AT THE PRIMARY SCHOOL LEVEL

12. THE GAP ANALYSIS • There is no universal system of primary education in Bangladesh. All the streams of institutions are running through different ideological beliefs in respect of their curriculums, academic administrations and operational strategies. • Education policies of different times have been found with sharp differences due to the distinct ideologies and beliefs of the policy makers depending on the government of the specific period. • Present diversified education systems create disparity in the various segments of the society, which is created due to the extent of financial involvement in obtaining the education.

13. THE GAP ANALYSIS • Orientation of foreign culture by divorcing the importance of indigenous and national culture makes our education systems threatening to the preserving of heritage. • Emphasizing the secular aspects of education by passing the religious or sacred dimensions drives the education systems to skeleton of worldly development without paying any heed upon the spiritual aspects and complete code of human life.

14. Complementary role of Religion in the Education Systems and Needs for Convergence • Religion and education are complementary to each other. It is inevitable to include religion in the primary education curricula with proportionate balance of sacro-secular aspects to sow the seeds of fundamental truths at the early stage of human development that helps to inculcate the value of inquisitiveness, enquiry, adaptability, innovation and continuous development in the society. • The avoidance of moral function of education by the secular dimensions and the avoidance of science, technology and other modern features by the religion-based dimensions have made the situation quite imbalance. • As the present variegated systems of primary education have made the quality issue questionable to survive in the age of global competition, the country must need to reach to a point of unanimity and to develop its enormous human-resources embracing the features of both religious and secular dimensions simultaneously.

15. Suggestions and Recommendations • Education systems should be adopted with the feelings of cooperation and collaboration, so that a caring society can be developed. • The wards in the next generation should be grown up by inculcating social values, ethical standards, history and heritage of the country. • Education system should be rooted in the religious dimension for educating students by integrated approach with the consideration of the humanity aspect, technical skills, mutual respect and other required abilities for the student development and which is considered as major factor for the convergence of education sub systems.

16. Suggestions and Recommendations • In reforming the education every commission should be formed based on democratic principle, having representatives from every streams by considering their ability, adaptability and competence. • Mutual respects, tolerance and dignity should be the fundamental principles in framing the policy related to the education. • The curriculum should be designed by integrating all the dimensions as described above for the attainment of unity of objectives and integration of sacred and secular issues.

17. Suggestions and Recommendations • Government shall have to take the strict control and monitoring of the new curriculum for its implementation. But assistance can be taken from the NGOs in facilitating the execution and implementation of new curriculum. • The input or study materials like textbooks must be prepared and monitored by the reliable authority that has true belief in the reformed or converged system and policy, so that no more option of divergence can appear. • Teachers’ ideas should be developed or rebuilt through effective training according to the spirit of the new policy.

18. Conclusion • It can be concluded from the history, and reality of the primary education of Bangladesh that the attitude, notions, social norms and values of its people which are enormously grounded with religion, should be taken into consideration in framing a universal policy. • Hence, a realistic, democratic and balanced attempt of convergence is needed where there will be no way to keep apart from science, technology or modernization in the name of religion, nor any option to remain apart from religion in the name of science and technology or progress.