AREAWISE SCHOOLING
Schooling system of Bangladesh is running in a derailed, disordered & indisciplined way. As a result, schools are incapable to fulfil our national expectations and blunders subsist in the root of the education system. In Bangladesh, 91% children get admitted in primary schools; but 41% of them dropout at primary level and 42% at secondary level, i.e. before sitting for SSC exam. Hitherto undertaking many steps, dropout remains out of control.

Our education system and admission procedure have gone through endless experiments. Class-discrimination and social injustice are becoming acute due to differences in education system & curriculum. It is the grumble of educationists that young learners don`t get appropriate fundamental education in primary & secondary levels and as such they are compelled to enter colleges or univerisities with poor basics. This is a big hindrance in building meritorious & quality students. Consequently, merit-crisis is widely evident at the national level and as a result our national problems are becoming more acute day by day. To achieve a meritorious nation and solve various national problems, it has become obligatory to restructure our schooling system. This is easily possible by establishing the system of Areawise Schooling.

Model of Areawise schooling
In the Areawise Schooling system, the set up of school education as well as its expansion will be totally area-based. By doing that schools will be well-equipped and quality education in all schools will be ensured. Nevertheless, teachers will be able to play an important role in improving the standard of education and in saving squander of time, labor & wealth of the nation.

In Areawise schooling, it will be on teachers to bring students in school and to take them back to residence. If there are 200 students and 10 teachers in a school, each teacher can take responsibility of 20/25 students. Each teacher will pick-up students from their residences of a particular area and will take them to school. On the way the teacher will intone national anthem and patriotic songs with the students, which will make teacher-student relationship very pleasant as well as young learners will learn discipline, patriotism & integrity. As a result crimes relating to teasing & drug abuse among adolescents will decline. If the school is nearby the residence, high school students will be able to commute to school with other students of the locality. If this system is materialized, wasteges of resources, time & labor will be lessened, parents will not be stressed about their children, dissipation of imported fuel will be dwindled, traffic system will remain controlled and incidence of road accident will decline. Above all, parents will be able to save the time that could be spent for their children and for social & national welfare activities. This will be a great achievement for a developing country like ours. If quality education for children can be ensured, quality of their life will improve automatically, which will improve our national dignity worldwide. Bangladesh has both government & private schools. It is crucial to make the schools harmonized & well-standard by taking various government initiatives. By establishing quality schools in the locality, we have to inspire the children to go to school, as well the basic aptitudes must be given to the insolvent guardians so that they send their offsprings to schools. As a result, the problem of dropout will almost disappear. It will be on teachers to instruct the students regarding behaviour, manner, etiquette & discipline. The school authority will also take the responsibility of the security of the students.

Foundation of areawise schooling will enhance the importance of birth registration and preserving health records. In many cases we do not get correct statistics of child birth. On the needs of knowing information on regional distribution of child birth, school enrollment rate, rate of dropout and its cause, average distance of school from residence etc., record of children should be registered immediately after birth. At the same time, death-record of children should be maintained.

Normally, at the age of 3 or even before that a child`s brain starts to prepare for formal education. So from then the child has to be inspired about education besides games. It must be in mind that only to collect a certificate is not the main objective of our education in school or madrasa.

The pre-historic livelihood of the natives included making fire by rubbing stones, hounding birds, trawling fish and so on. Thus they used to learn basics of living practically. Similarly, every child must start its basic & natural learning from family. Then, with the development of their brain, opportunities should be created to expand their knowledge and this is possible by areawise schooling.

If areawise schooling system can be materialized, educational environment and standard of schools in a particular area will be maintained involuntarily. Guardians will be conscious about the standard of local schools for ensuring better education for their offsprings. To maintain the eminence of the schools in a locality, a committee can be formed. This committee, consisting of government & non-government agents, will monitor the activities of the schools and will provide advice & help for ensuring better education for childern. Students & teachers of different institutions as well as parents will have chance to put significant opinion about the development of schools. Since schools will perform their responsibilities properly, quality education will be ensured. As such aids from coaching centres will not be necessary, which will save valuable time & wealth. Absence of the need to go out for coaching centres will ease severe traffic jam.

Fixing school time: preventing loss of time & energy of women
School timing should be fixed in such a way that the time can be used properly. For example, early morning hours can be utilized. In this case, schools may run from 7 am to 10/11 am. At that time, teachers & students will commute to school on foot, which will act as a healthy morning walk. Parents will be able to do their work without any tension. So the early-morning schooling system would be the best way. If it is necessary to run schools in two shifts, morning shift may run from 7am to 10/11am and the evening shift may be from 5/6 pm to 9pm. Thus implementation of Areawise Schooling may help to avoid schooling in afternoon hours, so that parents can perform thier professional duties undisturbedly; at the same time it will ease traffic during office hours. Hence, teachers will be able to take part in national services.

How our nation will be benefited
1. No transportation will be necessary to commute to school, as a result there will be no traffic jam as well as road accident will be lessened;
2. Import of fuel and misuse of gas will be lessened, foreign currency will be saved and wastage of national wealth will be lessened;
3. As there would be no transportation problem & cost, the guardians will have no tension for the children; expenditure in this regard would also be lessened;
4. Corruption of parents for using office car for their offsprings will be stopped;
5. Wastage of time & energy of parents & students will be lessened;
6. Guardians will be serious to the development of the local schools for the sake of offsprings; there will be no need to send the offsprings to distant town or abroad;
7. As there would be no admission test, there would be no school admission related corruption;
8. There would be no coaching business in school level and education-business would be checked.
9. As private tuition & coaching would not be necessary,related traffic jam will disappear;
10. There will be no dropout from school; crime relating to teasing & drugs among adolescents will be lessened;
11. Basic education will be ensured; it will become easy to learn discipline, patriotism, compassion, team-spirit, sharing, smartness etc. from early age;
12. As discrimination in education system would be lessened, social class discrimination will also decrease;
13. As a whole, standard & environment of school-education will improve to a large extent;
14. It will be possible to keep the correct statistics of the child birth and rate of population growth;
15. It will be easy to build a meritorious & intellectual nation and a knowledge-based society.

Accordingly, Areawise schooling has no alternative. Existing primary schools of the locality have to be reformed by improving their standard. Education is the basic right of a person, which is inevitable for a better life. No nation in the world has progressed without education. So modern & quality education and right direction towards quality life are necessary for our future generation. And areawise schooling is the primary & most important step in that regard.

How to Materialize
If the Government wishes, can materialize Areawise Schooling at any time. It will not require much endeavor or reform but only the intense willing of the policy makers. Government can inaugurate this system simply by an announcement that after certain years, a child will be allowed to get admitted only in a school of his/her own area or municipal ward. In addition, govt. should instruct the school authority that they will not admit any student out of area or ward after that stipulated year. Those who are studying in schools outside their locality, should be readmitted in the schools of their respective areas. As a result guardians will be more serious to the development of the schools of the locality. It is our firm belief that government will immediately come forward to materialize the areawise schooling considering the above mentioned 15 utilities of such a system.

If the government or the policy makers agree to the merit of this model, it can easily be implemented by undertaking a state decision. A governmental decision should be circulated immediately mentioning the target year for starting the implementation of the model. For example, if the government decides that the admission of all schools will be area based from 2018, the announcement of such target should be made immediately.

After this announcement guardians, school teachers and all other stakeholders will be aware that no child will be admitted to far-distant schools from 2018. Whether they agree or not, they will undertake following preparations as a consequence of that announcement. Since guardians will be informed beforehand that children will have to be admitted to nearby schools from 2018, they will be cautious about the quality of those schools. Even they will take utmost care to the development of those schools for their own interest. They will start loving & caring for those schools as the sanctuary of their children. As a result of advance announcement of the government, none will be troubled. Only 3 to 5 years period will be enough to cope with the changed system.

As advance notice will be circulated before implementing the system, the government does not need to give much effort. Public will be concerned & tended automatically to improve the quality of nearby schools for their own`s sake. As a response to this public awareness, the government will take initiatives to modernize & improve effectiveness of the Divisions/Ministry of the Primary & Mass Education and the Department of Primary Education. Moreover, the Thana Education Officer (TEO) will become more responsible to his duties.

The main duties of the TEO will be to find out the number of schools & students in a ward and assess the possibility of fluctuation in those numbers in future. Assessment of future fluctuations may be considered difficult by some, even questions may be raised regarding the accuracy of such attempts. However, considering the development pattern of the area as well as the trend in population pressure, one may get a clear view of such future possibilities. For example, the number of students of Lalbag or Tikatuli areas of Dhaka will not increase rather will decrease in future while there will not be much change in the numbers of students & schools in the Sadarghat area because of the inexorability of launch station. On the other hand, number of school-going children will increase in the area of Uttara. Because the habitation in old Dhaka is relinquishing day by day, while the same is rising in Uttara as a consequence of rapid development in that area. Therefore, it is necessary to take plans immediately to increase the number of the schools in Uttara. Such schools may be established either by government or private initiatives.

The general people will build-up desired quality schools if the government becomes considerate & strategic and if the bureaucracy is lessened. It is my personal belief that the schools established by general people will have better quality than those of government. Because, it is already proved that performance, quality & profit of the private schools, hospitals, community centers or industries are better than such public institutions.

The single most important precondition of a good educational institution is to have good teachers. During last few years a number of educational institutions have been established which have appointed highly-salaried qualified teachers. Students & guardians are becoming highly attracted to these institutions because of their excellence. And to meet such increased needs, these institutions are opening new branches. Excellent educational institutions maintain various types of recreational curriculums including study tours. They also provide attractive salary package and other facilities to the teachers. Providing for so many modern facilities compared to the public educational institutions costs a lot. Still these private institutions save millions of Taka, with which they construct multi-storied buildings, modern lift-generator, air-conditioned classrooms, lab, automation system and so on.

If meritorious persons can be attracted to school-teaching by providing high salary, then the weakness of our current primary education system will disappear and within 15 years we would be able to achieve a bright, modern meritorious nation. Along with these, government must urgently invest in improving the quality of books and to appoint sufficient number of qualified teachers, so that the primary education may develop further.

With the coordination of the Thana Education Officer (TEO), an Education Development Committee or forum consisting of 7 to 9 members may be established in every ward. This committee will resemble the structure of the Dhaka Regional Social Welfare Committee which works under the guidance of Dhaka City Social Welfare Project. Hence, government will not have much work-load for education development purpose and the time that will be saved can be used in other productive activities. This annual or biennial committee should not include political personality. Accordingly, education-loving and general public of the area will get chance by rotation to contribute to the development of education and thus it will be possible to avoid political disagreements. The regular duties of these members will be to assess the probable fluctuation of the number of students in the area for next 3-5 years and to undertake necessary steps to establish new schools by the private sector or to advise the government about it. The committee should also work to improve standards of existing schools, appointing qualified & skilled teachers and stuffs in those, dismissing extra stuffs & teachers, taking advice of the local renowned people or even arranging an annual convention of local people to seek advice from wider citizens.

In this system if a student needs to change his area, then he or his guardians should take transfer certificate from the Education Development Committee of the departing area and obtain permission from the Committee of the entering area. Moreover, birth & health related information of the members of that family have to be transferred to the new ward. Thus, establishing Areawise Schooling system is not tough at all rather very easy. In this regard, we can follow Britain or the other developed countries. Some negative-minded persons may be tended to criticize this system, but I have firm belief that any criticism or imitations presented to the Development Committee will definitely be solved.

We, the public, accept our national election that takes place all over the country in a single day as clear & unbarred. But, are not there some forged votes? Can these few forged votes sabotage the whole voting system? If not, then why some insignificant difficulties will obstruct us in materializing `Areawise Schooling` system, which is an easy solution to our national intellectual development?

Diverse problems & faults in present schooling system
The root problem of our present schooling system is admission of students of one area in a school of another area. In a densely populated country or town, the more frequently the inhabitants move outside, the more will be the traffic and also more time & energy will be lost. It is the common scene in Dhaka City that inhabitants of Gulsan, Banani, Mirpur or anyother area admit their offsprings to a school of Siddeswari or Motijheel. Again, students of Siddeswari or Motijheel area goes to the schools of Gulshan or Banani. Consequently- valuable time, wealth & energy of students & guardians are being wasted in commuting to and from schools, which stands to a huge national loss.

Naturally, children living in Hill Tracts, coastal area or disaster prone areas cannot access schools because of the unavailability and far distance. Even if they can access, they have to stop after some days because of the hardship to continue. Despite undertaking many endeavors, government is failing to reach the goal of universal primary education because of communication problem, lacks in teachers, monga, poverty etc.

To go to distant schools, students have to spend 2-4 hours daily. Guardians & drivers have to spend 6-12 hours which ultimately cost yearly wastage of 2190-4380 hours or 91 to 182 days. We not only lose valuable time, but there remains risk of road accidents. Mothers of school-going children have to spend hours after hours to take thier children to school and wait for them in school premise. It kills their most valuable physical stamina. If a mother remains regularly alienated from home for such long hours, she would not get much time & strength for other child or for household activities. This is not only a loss to the family but also a huge wastage of resources of the nation. Therefore, we must be serious to stop this undesired national wastage.

The lottery system which is being adopted recently for admission in schools, will not solve the problems of admission, education & traffic; these will rather keep on rising. It is beyond imagination why children are being diverted to lottery system of admission instead of competition of talent & creativity in the very beginning of their lives. The lottery-game is not a usual or natural game. Lottery system is to be chosen where there is no alternative way. Making the lottery-game compulsory for the children in the very first step of their lives, is totally unethical. If at all the children are destined to face the lottery for admission, it should be arranged in local schools, not in the schools far from their locality. The children from Baridhara should not be allowed to join the school lottery of Dhanmondi, similarly the children of Dhanmondi will not take part in the lottery of Baridhara or Siddeswari schools. The child living nearer to a school will get more priority in school admission.

Extra-educational duties performed by teachers
In our present schooling system teachers have to spend almost the whole day in school. In addition to educational activities, they have to perform many public duties such as preparing voter-list, taking part in election activities, vaccination of children, rice distribution of OMS and so on. These type of public duties are so urgent & sensitive that teachers are obligated to do those. And for these reasons they cannot carry out the duties of school and of education properly; even they have to ignore their duties at school for performing the duties imposed by the government.

Moreover, by being so much involved in public duties, teachers become bureaucratic in their behavior. Consequently, education is often hampered in the hands of teachers who are the keepers of education. As a result, other developmental activities are disturbed. In a country where teachers are abusively used in public activities; where politicians use teachers for political purpose, students of colleges & universities are used as political labors, the standard of education and the future of that nation cannot be bright.

If it is necessary to involve teachers in some governmental duties, then those have to be arranged in such a way, that teachers can accomplish educational curriculum as their foremost duty and then perform other jobs. However, in most of the cases teachers should be spared from participating in extra-eductional activities. If morning & evening shift schooling system is launched, teachers will be able to do other activities during noon.

Worsening problems of our current schooling system
1. Rigorous limitations & faults in fundamental education;
2. Dissipation of time, energy & wealth of both students & parents;
3. Wastage of fuel because of commuting to far distant schools;
4. No access to school in rural & remote areas;
5. Sufferings of public because of severe traffic jam;
6. Large gatherings and painful awaiting of guardians for their offsprings in the street in front of the school;
7. Unexpected death of students in casualty;
8. Reluctance of local leaders and powerful people to the development of school of the area since their children study in schools of other areas;
9. Standard of most of the schools is very poor, while only a few of them are quite good;
10. Coaching based education system;
11. Rising number of drop-outs leading to crimes among adolescents;
12. Rising disparity in education;
13. Failure of schools to build qualified citizens for the needs of the nation;
14. Backwardness & failure of Bangladesh to keep pace with more competitive modern world.

Single solution of diverse problems: Areawise Schooling
The single solution to the problems mentioned above is Areawise Schooling. If school-education is initiated & developed totally area based, the rural children will get opportunity to continue study in their locality.

Similarly urban children will also be bloomed in the schools of their areas. Expecting to admit their offsprings to a renowned school, guardians usually enroll them to a far distant school.

It consequently, creates complexity in school admission. Nevertheless, to eradicate these problems as well as to fulfil our expectation of quality education, areawise schooling is the only way. However, many do not realize this; even if realized by some, they are not able to implement this system for unwillingness & non-cooperation of the policy makers and respective authorities.

Areawise schooling: The first & primary footstep of an enlightened nation
Now we are leading difficult lives; lives with lacks of innocence, bursting with discontents. There is always a sense of crisis looming overhead -am I making enough money? Does my son ride a bigger car than his mates? Hunger for wealth, insatiability to affluence, degradation of our moral values -all of these are generating greed in our offsprings. To fulfil the unfair needs of the child, parents are becoming immoral; they are involving themselves in corruption.

Today we are involved in an unhealthy competition of having luxurious mansons, latest model cars and so on. Our children are also becoming involved in such competition. Nowadays students don`t know the amusement of going to school together or to play in field with the mates. They do not exchange good books or notes with classmates nor share passions among them. Nonetheless parents discourage them to do so. `Only my child will be the best` -with this expectation we consequently make our mentality very narrow & self-centered. Therefore, our children are learning to be selfish & self-centered. Though they think about their education to some extent, they are not at all oriented to think for the country. They don`t talk about creative issues with their mates, nor even with the parents. They are more attracted to gritty bundles of money rather than good notes of various lessons. As such we don`t get proper behaviour from the children.

At present, our offsprings converse in a very strange way, mixing Bangla, English & Hindi together. They consider this to be an expression of smartness. As a result they know neither Bangla nor English or Hindi accurately. They don`t know which language, manner & behavior will bring honor to them and will make them fit in family, society & world. Increasingly, our youths are becoming bewildered, they are now in perplexity. They are divesting from the enjoyment of love & affection and thus dispossessing from happiness & satisfaction of philanthropy. We are failing to show right path of life to our children. We the elders- the guardians, community leaders and political leaders are responsible for the decay of the young generation; lack of maturity & naiveness of our policy-decision are driving our youths towards the wrong way, making them addicted to eve-teasing, drugs and various negative practices. I still believe that inspiring the nation in family love movement can bring success in our struggle to stop eve-teasing and drug-abuse. Slogan, speech or publicity-propaganda will not be able to stop these evils. The thought process that leads to crimes like eve-teasing or drug-abuse has its root in the primary brain programming that takes place in the family; the advanced learning in this regard is done in educational institutions and finally such learning becomes deeply rooted by social & political influence. As such negative words & thoughts should be uprooted from all levels of the society and positive thoughts & efforts should be installed to lessen all delinquencies including eve-teasing. So long implementation of this good effort is not materialized; all social evils will stay.

The young man who is perturbed to find 16 noble persons out of 16 crore people, who faces dearth of followable person or role model in front of him, what great thing could be expected from him except teasing?

Fundamentalism, terrorism, teasing, drug-abuse, bribery, corruption, snatching & theft -all misdeeds, ill-power and bad thoughts could be eradicated by generating proactive attitude, which in turn can be achieved by proper education & training.

Basic education, so as to say, primary schooling is the basis of all education & knowledge. Construction of high rise building without strong foundation is deemed to be madness. Similarly, aspiration of a developed & modern nation without modern primary education system may be treated as foolishness.

Nation cannot expect good output from the weak & decaying foundation of primary education. So, for the development of the country and awakening of the nation, the development of schooling system should get first priority.

We must teach our offsprings about morality, patriotism and satisfaction of sacrifice. Then they will be person of benevolence, person with politeness. To build such quality manpower and just society, Areawise Schooling is the first & foremost footstep. The child who commutes to school by rickshaw-van or covered-van like a poultry-cage, nothing other than chicken-hearted attitude can be expected from him. Proper bringing up of a child and flourishing of their brain are not possible by keeping them in traffic, black smoke & dust in the street. Child health and their talent, most valuable assets of the nation, are being destroyed in this way. So, Areawise Schooling is a must to protect these valuable assets.

Meritorius students for a bright nation
In our educational curriculum mass schooling and religious education are compulsory, but our college education and religious study should be optional. Schooling system must be one way & equal. Learners must be inspired about discipline & patriotism since childhood. Areawise modern schooling system will solve many of our problems and thus automatically our educational problems will be solved; accordingly the base of quality education will be founded; it will be auxiliary to effective higher education; the nation will be freed from current dividing educational system and there will be no chance of evolving JMB like the Gestapo group of Hitler.

If areawise schooling system is launched, higher education will be formed on the well built base of primary education, where only the brilliant will have the access. This brilliant students will prepare themselves to lead education, research, politics & government. The rest of the students don`t need to spend time in higher education, rather they will become skilled citizen by taking vocational education. These brilliant students and skilled citizens developed by Areawise schooling system will build an enlightened & dazzling nation. Such a brilliant generation will easily change our society, nation and the whole world.

[Your kind opinion on this model will be highly appreciated, Which may be incorporated in next edition]