Alok Acharja

To keep pace with the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we had no choice but to acquire skills in information and communication technology. For this, it was necessary for students to gain an idea about ICT from textbooks and acquire skills in practical work. For this purpose, modern computer labs have been built in every secondary and higher secondary school in the country. Needless to say, a huge amount of money has been spent by the state behind this. It can be said that this was the biggest change in educational institutions in the last decade. Having a modern lab in every educational institution is a special achievement, at least for a country like ours. The question is, after all this organization or after spending a huge amount of money, what are our children actually achieving from here? What kind of skills are they acquiring? If the answer is that they are getting the necessary knowledge about computers well, then there is no question. Even if it is not a complex program, at least if one can do basic computer tasks after college, then this objective can be called successful. The reality is that it did not happen. If that were the case, then there would be no need to crowd computer shops in villages and towns just to learn MS Word and Excel. Most of them are in college or have completed college. Everyone has studied ICT in school and college. And since there is also practical work, it can be assumed that these students will learn it!

In our country, when students go to private schools and colleges with bags on their shoulders, their subject focus is especially on two subjects that have been known as difficult to understand since time immemorial, such as mathematics and English. And then, students of the science department also study subjects like physics and chemistry separately. ICT has been newly added to these subjects. School and college students study ICT privately in groups.

They study a subject privately outside the class only when they find that subject difficult to understand and quite challenging to pass. This means that students consider ICT education as difficult to understand as mathematics and English. Now if we look at the results of the public examinations of mathematics and English, we can see that the effect of these two subjects is there where the results have been somewhat disastrous in the past. ICT is different from all other subjects and when it was made compulsory, the main goal was to make every student skilled or qualified in ICT or information and technology. The question is, is this goal being met or has it been met? We understand that a subject that seems difficult to students is that they do not study unless they are absolutely forced to. That is what happened in this case too. In order to improve the quality of education and build a digital Bangladesh, the then government made ICT compulsory in class VI in 2012 and in class XI and XII in 2013. According to the education statistics published in 2023, the number of ICT teachers in the country is 14,712 against 20,353 secondary level educational institutions. Compared to the education statistics of the previous five years, this number is the lowest in the past few years.

This is a statistical calculation. Let me give an example. Just a few days ago, a class VI student of a reputable school in my area told me that she had no thoughts about other subjects. There are so many problems with information and communication technology. Because they did not get the class properly and then they do not understand the practical work. They did not get any good answers even after asking the school teacher. If you do a little research, you will see that this issue is becoming a complicated issue for students (all or most) in almost every class.

Where the program is discussed in the fifth grade science book. That is, the work done for a great purpose is not going well. Knowing about computers and knowing some basic tasks are not the same thing. Learning computers will be truly learned when computers are learned by hand. If you run to the ICT teacher to learn some theory or mathematical problems just to pass the exam, then learning ICT by hand is no longer possible. For example, the subject of mathematics or science is now limited to passing or getting good marks. How many mathematics experts or scientists have we been able to produce in our country since independence? Yet there is no shortage of students who get private, coaching or good marks in these subjects. If ICT remains as such a subject, then the future generations will remain far away from the main purpose of this subject. There will be no profit.

The writer is essayist and columnist.