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THE reason why the Rapid Action Battalion picked up FM Masum, a staff correspondent of New Age, detained him for more than 10 hours and subjected him to physical torture would have been obvious even if one of the RAB officials had not pointed it out to him categorically. ‘We are taking our anger at Nurul Kabir [New Age editor] out on you,’ Masum quoted the official as having told him during his detention at the RAB 10 headquarters at Dhalpur in the capital Dhaka. Moreover, there is hardly any reason to believe that it was a case of mistaken identity; Masum did tell the RAB team who he was during the raid on the house where he is a tenant. He was first slapped in the face and then beaten up, all in public. What happened at the RAB headquarters later was not difficult to imagine; when he was eventually released, there were injury marks all over his body and both his feet were swollen. Not only that, the battalion attempted to set Masum up as a drug dealer, videoing arranged sequences of seizure of narcotic substances from his room, and even videoed him with the wife of the owner of the house.
   The reason why the battalion is especially angry at Nurul Kabir and his paper is not difficult to understand, either. New Age, and its editor, has all along been a staunch critic of the extralegal and extrajudicial actions perpetrated by a section of the battalion in the name of combat against crimes, just as other politically conscious and democratically oriented sections of the Bangladeshi media and society have been. We, at New Age, firmly believe the rule of law is a fundamental tenet of democracy and a prime requisite for democratic growth of the state and society. Torture in custody and even killing in so-called ‘crossfire’ or ‘encounter’ of suspected criminals by some trigger-happy members of the Rapid Action Battalion as well as other law enforcement agencies of the country essentially undermine the rule of law. The rule of law demands that even the vilest of criminals reserve the right to be defended in court of law and that no one should be allowed to play the role of law enforcer, prosecutor and juror all rolled into one.
   The detention and torture of Masum may very well be construed as intimidation by the Rapid Action Battalion, seemingly to stifle our critical voice against its wilful disregard for the rule of law, which, simply put, is a brazen attempt at impinging upon press freedom. What is especially worrying is the fact that, despite interventions by the home minister and the home secretary, the battalion delayed Masum’s release and only let him go after forcing his colleagues to sign an undertaking that he had been handed over to them ‘in good health’. Such defiance could give rise to the impression in the public mind that the political government may have very little control over
   the battalion.
   Be that as it may, no one, especially the battalion, should, even for a fleeting second, nurture the illusion that such acts of intimidation would desist New Age from speaking its mind and criticising anyone, be he or she a law enforcer or otherwise, for undermining the rule of law and impinging upon individual liberty and dignity. We demand that the government should institute a judicial inquiry into the incident, identify those involved in unlawful detention and subsequent torture on our staff correspondent, and bring them to justice. That would be an apology, much more effective than any written statement by a RAB top brass or a senior member of the government.

A strong case for
empowerment
of women

THAT about half the people of Bangladesh live in poverty and about a third in extreme poverty is not quite a revelation. The recently published World Hunger Report, and previous reports by local research organisations, indicated as much. But the report published in New Age on Friday points toward a direction that is seldom undertaken. The report points out that reduction of the gender gap could substantially reduce the level of poverty as well. Thus, there is an added urgency towards empowerment of women in order to attain faster and more sustainable poverty reduction.
   While addressing the gender gap does have a moral binding for the government as well as the state in order to ensure equal opportunities for all the citizens, women’s education and empowerment also has a strong logical rationale which cannot be ignored in economic terms either. Women constitute almost half the population of the country and by educating and empowering them further, with a view towards integrating them into the mainstream workforce, the government would in fact be working towards increasing the overall productivity of the economy. Furthermore, it has been found through numerous scholastic endeavours, including surveys, researches and studies that investment on women’s education has a higher social return than investment on men’s education because women’s education is reflected in better health and hygiene of her household and children. Furthermore, women typically spend more on their households from their earnings.
   So women’s empowerment and their integration into the mainstream through employment and education is bound to have far reaching and long term returns, the full extent of which of which is yet to be measured. This would also surely reduce the rate of maternal and infant mortality through a higher awareness about health. Also educated mothers tend to have healthier and better educated children, which would certainly further boost household productivity and income opportunities. That would eventually lead to lower poverty. This is but only one of the fronts where the government must fight its war on poverty, because poverty eradication requires a concerted effort on several fronts at the same time in order to be effective and sustainable.

OF LATE, the present government has started the process of finalising the national education policy 2009. However, most of the time, the trend for education policy formulation is found as a manifestation of the ruling political party’s ideological expression rather than coverage of national interest, even though education is one of the basic rights confirmed by the constitution. Since independence, six education commissions have been formed and few reports prepared; however, except for the education policy 2000 none was proposed. Unfortunately, the proposed education policy 2000 was not implemented. Such a messy condition has affected the education sector, which has translated into a ‘low quality public education’. Citizen’s faith in public education is decreasing day by day and many well-heeled people in urban areas have already aligned themselves to costly private education instead of public education. People who do not have the capacity to bear the cost of quality private education are taking non-quality private education in some kindergartens, English-medium schools and qoumi madrassahs. Currently, seven different types of education systems (general education under national curriculum board, kindergarten, English medium, madrassahs, qoumi, vocational, non-formal education) are prevailing in Bangladesh.
   Some English-medium schools and kindergartens are following so-called improved western cultures. On the other hand, qoumi madrassahs are still anchoring on century-old systems that neither enlighten students appropriately nor prepare them with the required instruction of mathematics and English, needed to secure gainful employment. The students pursuing education in these systems are not exposed to national culture, heritage, and language. Ironically, they are growing up as an ‘unknown’ Bangladeshi. Lack of exposure to country’s culture, heritage and language make them less committed to the national cause. If this continues, the country will face a serious crisis in near future with its cultural identity. Under the circumstances, it is of utmost importance to formulate a national education policy which integrates all the prevailing education systems under one umbrella in line with national culture, heritage and interest without compromising the quality. Considering the aforementioned facts, the currently proposed education policy 2009 is considered a guideline to the journey of ‘education for all’. Nevertheless, while shedding light on the policy draft some questions arise in our minds that need further clarification in case of successful implementation.
   Reducing illiteracy is one of the big challenges for Bangladesh in this era of globalisation. However, EFA (Education for All) Global Monitoring Report 2009 has encountered large-scale shortfall in achieving key EFA goals by 2015 for many countries including Bangladesh. At present, the illiteracy rate for 15-year-olds and above is 51 per cent (Page-18, National Education Policy 2009). Yet, the current policy has set a target of 100 per cent adult literacy by 2014. However, analysing the data of Literacy Assessment Survey 2008, it is revealed that current adult literacy growth rate is 0.68 percentage point average. Taking into account the current literacy growth, rate it is projected that another 70 years will be needed to attain 100 per cent adult literacy, which is far away from the policy proposed year-mark. Therefore, substantive initiatives and target year have to be set for conversion of ‘Education for All’ slogan into action; otherwise achieving 100 per cent adult literacy will remain dream.
   Undoubtedly, drop-out is one of the main challenges along with other factors that contribute to higher rate of illiteracy. Good news is that some specific initiatives have already called for reducing illiteracy. The initiatives like school lunch in rural areas, extension of scholarship for poor students are important besides those to ensure standard toilets, playground on school promises, new syllabus and so on.
   But there is still uncertainty as the data indicates that over two-thirds of the children from the poorest category were not selected as recipients of stipend. TIB (2001) presented a worrying picture where they showed that 27 per cent of children from affluent households received the stipend and 46 per cent of the stipend holders did not receive the full amount of stipend. Such irregularity of disbursing stipend is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. A clear commitment to address and solve these problems is needed in policy; otherwise our waiting period may extend beyond projected years or more to be a 100 per cent literate country.
   Another important challenge that needs further clarification is the extension of primary education up to class VIII, incorporating a final examination at the end of class V and public examination at the end of class VIII guided by an indifferent question covering the whole country. At present, nine education boards are working for carrying public examinations at secondary (class VI-X) and higher secondary (class XI-XII) levels, among other responsibilities including the effort to reorganise and monitor educational institutes established by private initiatives. The number of all students, who participate yearly at two public examinations of secondary and higher secondary level are approximately 950,000 and 750,000 respectively.
   On the other hand, 2,000,000 students, at 78,363 primary schools of different kinds, are expected to participate at the final examination of class V. Of them, 1,200,000 students are expected to participate at the public examination of class VIII if we consider 40 per cent drop-out rate at secondary level education as pointed in the Page-14, National Education Policy, 2009 (If primary education extended up to class VIII then drop-out rate will lessen as the same student will study continuously without changing institution. Therefore, number of participants in the Class VIII public exam will be more than the statistics presented here). The findings, therefore, raise questions on existing capacity of the education boards. The legitimate question is how to accommodate 1,200,000 students under current facility. Unfortunately, no clear guideline has been provided in the proposed policy to accommodate these additional students; even no instruction has been provided whether they will be placed under the current primary education supervising authority – Primary and Mass Education Division of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education – or another new board will be launched to supervise them.
   The policy has made a provision of incorporating local government authorities and local civil society committees for making necessary arrangements for public examinations. Obviously, the inclusion of local government and participation of local people have significant relevance in this regard, but we should not forget that local government is assigned to perform a number of tasks as its own official duty. Therefore, there is a potential risk of mismatch between other government authorities and education department in case of performing such tasks.
   Problem may also arise from allocating teachers for newly proposed primary education extension. The teachers who are currently teaching in primary schools are mostly trained and educated to teach up to class V. If the primary education extends to class VIII then there is a need for extra teachers. Integration of next three classes (Class VI, VII, VIII) with existing level of primary education and associated severe dearth of competent teachers for operation of new education policy in rural areas and madrassah pose big challenges. Factually, existing teachers are not academically qualified enough to teach up to class VIII. Therefore, the government may force the existing teachers to go for retirement and recruit new qualified teachers those who are academically and professionally competent to teach up to class VIII or recruit additional teachers added to the existing teachers.
   However, both the options may bring about new problems. If government goes for forced retirement of existing teachers then 350,000 (currently approximate 350,000 teachers are working in government primary schools) teachers will be unemployed and it will create lots of social and economic tensions, no doubt. Alternatively, new recruitment of teachers along with existing teachers will create problem in organisational hierarchy. New teachers, who will be recruited to teach students above class V may perceive themselves superior than existing teachers; whereas existing teachers will perceive themselves senior to the new teachers. Therefore, a superiority complexity may arise, which will create anarchy in the whole systems and will obstruct government’s agenda of developing quality of education.
   If we try to implement newly proposed eight-year primary education from the beginning of the year 2011 (as stated in the policy), the situation may come up with many difficulties. The whole arrangement including infrastructures for reforming the existing system would take time; that might take two years or more. Indeed, if primary education is extended up to class VIII by a public examination and secondary public examination at class XII then another complexity may evolve. The students who are now in class IX and X are expected to be qualified on public exam at class X; thus it requires another two years. It is also worthy of mention that significant portion of the students failed the examination. Thus, next three years may be required for rearrangement of public examination for disqualified students. As a result, seven years might be required in order to run the new system of primary education up to VIII class completely.
   Bangladesh is a signatory to the Dakar framework (World leaders and a number of organisations signed a declaration in 2000 in Dakar, Senegal with a commitment to fulfil 6 goals for implementing education for all) along with universal declaration of human rights, Jomtien conference on education for all, convention on the rights of children. These international conventions and covenants have significant influence to formulate a time-befitting education policy. In case of financing for implementation of the national education policy-2009, the commitment to Dakar framework has been considered as momentous. Even though, the proposed assumption for increasing education budget to 6.0 per cent or 4.5 per cent of GDP in the financial year 2017-18 is very time demanding, but other sectors such as health, agriculture, infrastructure development etc. vitally sought for increasing funds as the demand is increasing day after day with the pace of increasing population.
   To face the challenges of 21st century a comprehensive and updated education policy is must. Recently proposed education policy is a positive attempt towards modernisation of the system despite shortcomings that should be clarified. The major challenges would be ensuring sound management of primary education up to class VIII. One of the fundamental requirements that might be considered is creating of additional education boards for managing newly proposed extended primary education. The target of making all adults literate by 2014 should be redefined in line with reality. The aim of reform initiatives should target reducing illiteracy in a pragmatic way. Otherwise, the policy will remain just that, a policy.
   Mohammed Abdul Baten and Md Musfikur Rahman are researchers at Unnayan Onneshan, an independent policy think-tank based in Dhaka