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The standard of education has fallen in most of the non-government high schools and madrashas in Jamalpur and Pabna due to lack of qualified teachers and mismanagement in running them.
   In the past, the private schools in the districts had highly qualified and experienced teachers in all subjects including English and mathematics.
   But after the retirement of these teachers the management of the private schools cared little to recruit qualified persons in those posts.
   A report from our Jamalpur correspondent said many of the 242 non-government high schools and 170 madrashas across the district have no qualified teachers in major subjects such as English and mathematics.
   These institutions also suffer from the dearth of qualified science teachers.
   The poor standard of teaching in these schools compels the wards of well off families to turn to coaching centres to make up their deficiency in different important subjects.
   But the education of the students belonging to poor families suffers much as they can not afford to engage private teachers or enroll themselves in coaching centres.
   Most of the non-government high schools in the district do not take any class during the first two months of the academic session on the pretext of non-availability of the government approved book list.
   Besides, classes in many of these schools remain suspended for 20 to 25 days each year as they are used as centre for the SSC examinations.
   The standard of teaching is not up to the mark in these schools as the teachers lack requisite academic qualifications to take classes.
   They got appointment because of the backing of the influential people in the management of these institutions. Moreover, the performances of the teachers are not monitored.
   According to our Pabna correspondent, not a single student could obtain GPA-5 in the last year’s SSC examinations from any of the 225 non-government high schools across Pabna.
   These schools are beset with many problems.
   The conflict among the members of the managing committees and between head masters and general teachers in most of the high school has been vitiating the ideal academic atmosphere and hampering education of students.
   Besides, most of the private high schools in the district suffer from the lack of qualified science teachers.
   Laboratory is also missing from these schools.
   The experienced science teachers of these schools devote much of their time to teach students either privately or in coaching centres for earning extra money.
   For this the general students of the schools suffer most.

Harvesting of aman, which has started in full swing in Narail, has not only eased the economic woes of the poor people but also created job opportunities for the landless.
   Harvesting of paddy has also pushed up labour charge in the rural areas of the district.
   The wage of a labour has gone up to Tk 100 to 120 per day from Tk 50 to 60 a month ago.
   During the monga period from September to late November, most of the labourers had no work for earning their
   living.
   If they somehow could manage work during the monga period, their wage ranged from Tk 50 to 60 per day.
   Some even were willing to work in exchange for two squares of meals only.
   Still many took loan from the big jotdars by selling their labour in advance.
   The start of aman harvesting has completely changed the whole scenario on the labour and economic fronts.
   The situation has come to such a pass that the big land holders are not getting labour for harvesting paddy.
   The shortage of labour and their high wages have placed the jotdars in an awkward situation.
   They are unable to manage labour even by promising to pay higher wages.
   As a result, paddy plants in many areas are drying on the lands.
   The labour crisis has taken away much of the happiness of the farmers of having bumper production of aman in the district this season.

A class IV student of Dingadah Dakhil Madrassah was killed in a road accident on the Chuadanga-Jhenidah road in Chuadanga on Saturday.
   The victim was identified as Shihab, 11, son of Monjil Ali of village Khajura under Chuadanga Sadar upazila.
   The police said Shihab died on the spot when a speeding Jhenaidah bound truck ran over his bicycle while he was returning home from the madrassah.
   A case was filed with the Chuadanga sadar police in this connection.
   The driver managed to escape from the scene with the truck.