By Naushaad Kabir
Because of the long colonial history, English has occupied a significant position in the education of Bangladesh. At present, English is taught as a compulsory subject from grade 1 to grade 12 and also in the first year of undergraduate programmes. Among the diverse streams of education offered under the educational curriculum of Bangladesh, English medium schools follow the Cambridge curriculum to a great extent, and to a limited but promising extent, the IB (International Baccalaureate) curriculum. The demand for the English version of the national curriculum at the secondary and primary levels of education is on the rise. At the tertiary level, since 1992, private universities have been offering education in English. Specialist universities like science and technology or medical universities also offer education in English. In general universities, both teachers and learners have the freedom to choose their medium of instruction (MOI). There are more than 100 private universities and 50 public universities in the country (Haque, 2022; Sultana & Chowdhury, 2022) and around 2300 tertiary level colleges affiliated to the National University of Bangladesh where around 2 million students study (Haque, 2022). The role of English as a medium of instruction is increasing at all levels of education and employment.
At present, the country’s vision and missions are more driven by the global, commercial, technological and neo-liberal trends. The Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme, a multinational digital transformation organization under the ICT division of the Government of Bangladesh, focuses on the inclusive digitization of public services in Bangladesh. Among the nine missions mentioned on their website (https://a2i.gov.bd/), it pays special attention to Smart Bangladesh Vision 2041, Digital Equity and Future of Education. According to ‘SMART Bangladesh Vision 2041’, the country aspires to being a High-Income Country by 2041 by achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. The three following excerpts from the website elucidate the government’s emphasis on technology and development more lucidly.
Smart Bangladesh Vision 2041
Smart Bangladesh Vision 2041 is about more than a futuristic Bangladesh, more than 5G internet, more than 100% smartphone penetration, more than 100% high-speed internet penetration, more than going cashless.
Digital Equity
Building forward better, Innovative Bangladesh Vision 2041 requires an uncompromising and relentless focus on ensuring Digital Equity – the idea that everyone should have the availability, accessibility and affordability of information technology needed for full participation in our society, democracy, and economy.
Future of Education
Bangladesh’s approach to reforming the education ecosystem has been multidimensional. It is a collaborative effort between the Government, NGOs, and the private sector. Together, they have created a digital education ecosystem which follows a multimodal approach – a combination of multiple high-tech, low-tech and non-tech learning modalities . . . Keeping pace with the changing times, a2i has provided technical support to the education ministry to adapt a Private-Public-People-Media (PPPM) strategy to facilitate learning and teaching from home.
In implementing the government’s aspiration to be a high-income country by 2041, concerted efforts of people of diverse origins and types need to be included and a bridge between the colonial past and the aspiring present need to be built to be able to reach the desired future. There is no alternative to preparation through education and this is why the MODISH research project is pertinent and important, as it will help us understand the role of English with regard to technology and EDI. The project is aiming to build up a thorough understanding of how English is perceived and used in education by diverse stakeholders in the country, whether the treatment of English is appropriately directed towards the goal or whether further comprehension of deciding factors is needed for further improvement. The project can also help ensure the participation of people from all walks of life and thus reduce inequity and enhance access, affordability, inclusion and quality in English education.
Kabir (2012, 2016) identified disputes regarding the role and status of English in education in all the reports of the education committees/commissions in post-independence Bangladesh. He presents four assumptions behind such disputes, including lack of sustainable planning, intervention of political parties, ideological divides in intelligentsia and vulnerability of the policy (Kabir, 2012, 2016). Through a research based approach, the MODISH project is likely to uncover the mismatches and contradictory elements in people’s ambivalent attitude towards English in the country, assist the educators, policy makers, guardians and students in coming to terms with the present day reality characterized by the rapid rise of technology i.e. artificial intelligence, VR technology, cashless society, the fourth industrial revolution and so on. Though the government level policy moves in a top-down fashion to still prioritise Bangla based education in a rather incoherent, ambiguous and ambivalent manner, the micro level practices of the people, in a bottom-up manner, seem to show preference for English in an unplanned and debatable way. Research projects like MODISH need to be conducted to eradicate challenges in language policy and planning with a view to ensuring smoother transition from the status of a ‘Least Developed Country’ to the status of a ‘Developing Country’ which Bangladesh targets to achieve in 2026.
References
A2i. https://a2i.gov.bd/
Haque, E. (2022, June 15). Public v. Private Universities in Bangladesh. banglanews24. https://www.banglanews24.com/english/open-forum/news/bd/94450.details
Kabir, M. M. N. (2012). An evaluation of the secondary school English curriculum in Bangladesh: Suggestions for reforms. An unpublished PhD dissertation. School of English Language Education. The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India.
Kabir, M. M. N. (2016). English Language Education in Bangladesh: Linking the Doubly Colonized Past To The Present Situation. Journal of the Institute of Modern Languages, Volume 27, 2016. Institute of Modern Languages, University of Dhaka.
Sultana, N., & Chowdhury, N. E. (2023, 28 January) The rise of private universities in Bangladesh. The Dhaka Tribune. https://www.dhakatribune.com/op-ed/2022/06/15/the-rise-of-private-universities-in-bangladesh