Schools In Bangladesh Research Articles

An assessment of the teaching and learning process of public and BRAC primary schools in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT This study is an attempt to investigate on how quality education is experienced in primary schools in Bangladesh with a focus on teaching-learning process. Qualitative approach using individual interviews and non-participant observation has been applied for analysing data adopting purposive sampling method. The study findings show that the learners are not motivated to be attentive to classes and open their curious minds resulting from traditional method of education pursued by the teachers of public primary schools. This study also demonstrates that public schools are less concerned in exercising quality teaching and learning inside classrooms and lagging behind in achieving quality teaching and are learning but Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC) schools provide better quality teaching and learning by dint of teachers’ caring, classroom practices and adopting target based lesson plans and teaching. A high-quality school environment needs to be provided with a focus on the creative thinking of learners for generating their innovative ideas.

ICT Based Mathematics Skill Development Program: An Initiative to Overcome Mathematics Anxiety

The present study has introduced a complete ICT based Mathematics Skill Development Program (MSDP) web service that aims to enhance the positive attitudes of students towards Maths. The entire system is designed and implemented in such ways that students can learn Maths with fun and practical experiences in the classroom rather than only theoretical exercises. For the last 2 years (2018-2019), we have applied MSDP in 4 distinct primary and secondary schools in Bangladesh and followed up the students ' (N = 200) attitudes towards Maths. Findings revealed that through the MSDP program, students have developed a significant positive attitude towards Maths that helps them to overcome mathematics anxiety.

Child maltreatment in Bangladesh: Poverty, social class, and the emotional abuse of elementary school children by teachers

Child maltreatment is a global problem, and child punishment, both physical and emotional, is a persistent phenomenon and major child rights issue in the global south, particularly in Bangladesh. Child abuse is any emotional, physical, or sexual mistreatment of a child that is perpetrated by an adult in a role of responsibility. Emotional abuse refers to a relationship between a child and a caregiver, which is a consistent pattern of harmful interactions with a child, other than physical or sexual abuse. In Bangladesh, the prevalence of emotional abuse within school settings is ostensibly widespread. However, there is little systematic research on the occurrence of emotional abuse within elementary schools in the nation. This article focuses on the incidence and predictors of emotional punishment, as well as students’ reactions to discipline among elementary school-going students in Bangladesh. A survey data set was used to explore 450 primary school children’s experiences of emotional abuse and responses to abuse within the school system in Bangladesh. Findings indicate that 88% of child participants were scolded during their current school year, and 82.7% were scolded during the previous school year. Teachers threatened about a quarter (24.9%) of the participants in their current school year. We found that poverty was a consistent factor for children receiving emotional punishment in schools. Ninety-two percent of poor children were subjected to emotional abuse in schools, and poor children were significantly more likely to suffer emotional abuse by teachers than non-poor children. The findings of this study highlight the need to conduct further studies of child maltreatment within schools in Bangladesh. In particular, a better understanding of the frequency and impact of emotional abuse within schools in Bangladesh will help to inform interventions at all levels of practice including, individual, family, group, community, and policy levels, as well inform teacher training and teacher education curricula in the country.

Distributional Effects of Corruption When Enforcement is Biased: Theory and Evidence from Bribery in Schools in Bangladesh

In many models of corruption where enforcement is unbiased, the rich are more likely to pay bribes for their children's education, implying that corruption reduces educational inequality. We develop models of bribery that reflect the fact that in developing countries, anticorruption enforcement is not unbiased, and higher income of a household is associated with higher bargaining power and better quality of institutions. In models of biased enforcement, the rich are less likely to pay bribes, making bribery regressive. The OLS estimates of the effects of household income are likely to find spurious progressivity in the incidence of bribery in schools. We exploit temporary rainfall shocks to provide suggestive evidence on the ability‐to‐pay effect, while long‐term rainfall differences capture the combined ‘poor people’ and ‘poor area’ effects. We find that the poor are more likely to pay bribes, and the amount paid does not depend on household income. The evidence rejects the ability‐to‐pay and related models based on unbiased enforcement, and is consistent with the ‘refusal‐to‐pay model’ of bargaining power where the rich decline to pay bribes. ‘Free schooling’ is free only for the rich, and corruption makes the playing field skewed against the poor.

Teaching English to the Test: Why Does Negative Washback Exist within Secondary Education in Bangladesh?

ABSTRACTThis article reports on a study that was carried out to explore the factors that contribute to a negative washback effect on English language teaching (ELT) in secondary schools in Bangladesh. Twelve secondary school teachers were interviewed to understand their perspectives on which factors influenced their pedagogical choices. The interview data were supplemented with secondary material, including official documents, media resources, and NGO (non-government organisation) reports. Drawing on a body of washback research and the empirical data, we constructed the basis for the argument that test-external socio-political and contextual factors may play a substantial role in shaping the nature of washback. It is suggested that emphasising a testing-teaching causal relationship may be overly simplistic, as language teaching may be affected not only by assessment factors but also by a complex of social-psychological, political, economic, and data-driven accountability factors in which testing and teaching are embedded. These insights have implications for scholars in language testing and assessment, policy makers, program designers, and managers in contexts where language tests are believed to affect language instruction negatively.

Experiencing shame: An affective reading of the sexual and reproductive health and rights classroom in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT This paper looks at how shame functions in the teaching of sexual and reproductive health and rights in the classrooms for 13–19 year-olds in secondary schools in Bangladesh. Using the theoretical framework of affect, the paper looks at shame and other experiences of discomfort and hesitation among teachers while teaching these topics to young people. Drawing insights from 25 in-depth interviews with teachers in secondary schools in urban, semi-urban and rural settings, the paper explores how teachers deemed teaching certain topics as ‘excessive’, unnecessary and inappropriate in school settings. Teachers experience reluctance and discomfort in discussing culturally sensitive sexual and reproductive health and rights topics, and a persistent fear of being ridiculed and excluded from their community. By exploring how affect can be understood to initiate critical reflection about classroom norms, pedagogy and the role of teachers, the paper highlights the challenges for teachers who are seen as gatekeepers of sexual and reproductive health and rights knowledge, and brings forth a more nuanced reflection on the knowledge production process in classrooms.

The Relative Performance of Different Types of Primary Schools in Bangladesh: A Multilevel Modeling Approach

This study aims to compare the performance of public primary schools with private primary schools and ebtedayee madrasahs, and identify the significant predictors associated with school performance applying the multilevel model. Using the dataset collected (2015-2016) from 1230 fifth-grade students and 60 teachers of 60 primary schools of three different types (public, private, and madrasah) in the northern part of Bangladesh, we find that the performance of public primary schools is lower than that of private primary schools but higher than ebtedayee madrasahs. But after adjusting for student- and school-level predictors, the better effectiveness between public primary schools and private primary schools or public primary schools and ebtedayee madrasahs is disappeared. Finally, we find that the schools having optimum levels of teachers’ belief, school academic atmosphere and learners’ prior achievement, learning time; time needed to complete the homework, home academic atmosphere, self-educational expectation, and self-educational confidence are likely to achieve better performance. Recommendations are drawn to maintain the quality of primary education, one of the most important policy agendas, under the National Education Policy 2010 of Bangladesh or the policies of other countries that would ultimately enhance the probability of attaining the Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4).

Factors Associated with Attrition of Girls Students from School in Bangladesh

Many girls who enrolled in a school but didn’t complete elementary or secondary education, have become a serious problem in the last few decades in Bangladesh. Several studies have been conducted to identify the determinants of school dropout by constructing bivariate and multiple logistic regression (MLR) model. Bangladesh multiple indicator cluster surveys (MICS) 2012 data were selected in this investigation. This study was based on girls aged between 15 and 17 years since all these girls should have been in school or have completed primary education. The backward stepwise method was used for model selection and fitting to the dataset. From 4800 girls, 29.1% were out of school and 70.9% were attending school. Backward stepwise method confirmed that girl’s marital status, area, division, wealth index, religion, mothers and father’s aliveness and household education were the major reasons of girl’s dropout and these covariates are only considered in the analysis. The MLR analysis showed that married girls were significantly (OR 11.06; 95% CI 9.05–13.56) more likely to attrition compared to unmarried girls. School-based programs aimed at preventing child marriage should target girls from the fifth grade because of their escalated risk, and they need to prioritize girls from disadvantaged groups.

A Study on Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) as Emerging Tool in Action Research

Structural equation modeling (SEM) depicts one of the most salient research methods across a variety of disciplines, including educational management. Recent research advocates the use of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) as an attractive tool in action research. The purpose of this paper is to systematically examine how PLS-SEM has been applied in action research with the aim of investigating the effect of teacher’s leadership styles (transformational and transaction) and student’s motivational factors (intrinsic and extrinsic) on student engagement for implementation of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) in classrooms as well as explore the mediating role of motivational factors of student between the relationship of teacher’s leadership styles and student engagement. A cross-sectional survey design was used for the study featuring a self-administrated questionnaire among the students of some selected schools in Bangladesh. The transactional leadership style of teachers influences student engagement, intrinsic, and extrinsic motivation while the transformational leadership style of teachers influences the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of the student. Both motivational factors mediated the relationship between leadership styles and student engagement. This study contributes to the literature by providing teachers with the updated guidelines for action research by using PLS-SEM. The study also suggests the way for increasing student engagement for CLT implementation in classrooms.

Primary School Teachers in 21st Century in Bangladesh: Some Potential Aspects for Professional Development Identified from Relevant Literatures

In the context of 21st century, the changes in different educational aspects are taken place rapidly. This is because to respond to the needs of the fast growing technology-based educational opportunities that require more capable teachers with multifaceted competencies. Bangladesh has paid highest attention to implement competency-based curriculum for its primary level of education. National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) in Bangladesh reformulated its competency-based curriculum goal, objectives, terminal competencies along with the related attainable competencies, subject specific competencies, learning outcomes and other related aspects. Besides, NCTB initiated to incorporate the international updated teaching-learning methods and techniques, interactive instructional strategies, formative assessment procedures in each grade and each subject to address the 21st century teaching-learning needs in its last revised curriculum in 2012. However, the teachers with multifaceted competencies that address their appropriate level of knowledge, skills and attitude can positively influence in creating such a supportive classroom practices for 21st century learners. The Forth Primary Education Development Program (PEDP4) of Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) in Bangladesh has highly emphasized to implement Continuous Professional Development (CPD) as an approach to strengthen its professional competencies for the government primary school teachers. This paper has been prepared based on the ideas explored through some relevant literature review. It basically identified some potential aspects for the teachers’ professional development of government primary schools in Bangladesh in 21st century context. This paper explored that the process of promoting teachers’ competencies need to be followed by set of activities with multifaceted continuous and regular manner at school setting.

Friendship and Female Education: Evidence from a Field Experiment in Bangladeshi Primary Schools

Abstract We randomly assigned 115 primary schools in Bangladesh to one of two settings: children studying in groups with friends and children studying in groups with peers. The groups consisted of four people with similar average cognitive abilities and household characteristics. While the achievement of male students was not affected by the group assignment, low-ability females with friends outperformed low-ability females working with peers by roughly 0.4 standard deviations of the test score distribution. This is not due to the fact that friends tend to be of the same gender or to a higher frequency of interactions among friends.

Impact of School Dropout on Human Development in Bangladesh

The Human Development Index (HDI) is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions: Education Index, Life expectancy at birth and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. As per Human Development Report of UNDP, Bangladesh was in 136th position among 189 countries in 2017. Education index is one of the important components of HDI of a country. The lack of education, forces the poor household to engage in less productive activities which results in lower GNI. Thus we can see that education has both direct and indirect influence on HDI of a country. Education index is the function of mean year of schooling and expected year of schooling. In 2015, dropout rates of secondary and primary schools were 40.29 percent, and 22.70 percent respectively. By reducing school dropout, the mean year of schooling of any country can be increased which results in a positive change in education index and thus human development index. The present research is an attempt to examine the influence of school dropout on Human Development Index. This study is based on both primary data and secondary data. Primary data have been collected through convenience sampling technique from 200 children who dropped out at different levels of primary and secondary schools in Bangladesh. Results show that the important reasons for school dropout are poor economic conditions, poor performance in school, less interest of parents, less interest of education, lack of school facilities, broken family, orphanage & migration of parents. The study recommends some ways to reduce school dropout. The study also suggests that the mean year of schooling can be increased through the establishment of residential schools, night schools, and through implementing learn and earn scheme by the Government of Bangladesh or other organizations.

Piloting a Shared Source Water Treatment Intervention among Elementary Schools in Bangladesh.

.Hundreds of thousands of children continue to die each year from diarrhea. We piloted a low-cost liquid chlorine point-of-use (POU) water treatment among elementary school children in Bangladesh. We began the 1-month intervention in four schools (two urban and two rural) by introducing POU drinking water hardware and behavior change communication. We trained teachers to deliver sessions encouraging students to drink chlorinated water from their own small plastic bottles to avoid disease transmission. We used cue cards and flip charts as visual aids. We evaluated the acceptability, feasibility, and potential for sustainability after 1 month and after 14 months of the intervention. During 1-month follow-up, among 141 drinking events observed, 141 students (100%) drank chlorinated water. In 93 or 66% of events, students used their own bottles, and in 43 (30%) of the events, they used common cups or hands washed before drinking. During the 14-month follow-up, we observed 732 drinking events. In 653 of 732 events (89%), students drank chlorinated water; in 78 events (11%), they consumed water from untreated drinking water sources. Among those who consumed chlorinated water, 20% (131/653) used their own bottles to drink water, 72% (467/653) used common cups, and 8% (55/653) used both hands to drink water. Most stated that they drank chlorinated water because it is safe, it has health benefits, and treatment reduces germs. Introduction of specific hardware, weekly hygiene sessions, and education materials enabled schools to treat water at POU and students to consume treated water.

Comparative Study of CDST & Multiplex PCR to Detect MBL Producing Gram-Negative Bacilli among VAP Patients Admitted in a Public Medical College Hospital of Bangladesh.

Background: Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is the most common nosocomial infection in intensive care units (ICU), which accounts for 25% of all ICU infection. Documenting carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacilli is very important as these strains may often cause outbreaks in the ICU setting and are responsible for the increased mortality and morbidity or limiting therapeutic options. The classical phenotypic method cannot provide an efficient means of diagnosis of the metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) producer. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays have lessened the importance of the phenotypic approach by detecting metallo-β-lactamase resistance genes such as New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase (NDM), Imipenemase (IMP), Verona integron-encoded metallo-β-lactamase (VIM), Sao Paulo metallo-β-lactamase (SPM), Germany Imipenemase (GIM). Objective: To compare the results of the Combined Disc Synergy Test (CDST) with that of the multiplex PCR to detect MBL-producing gram-negative bacilli. Materials and Method: A total of 105 endotracheal aspirates (ETA) samples were collected from the ICU of a public school in Bangladesh. This cross-sectional study was carried out in the Department of Microbiology, Chittagong for quantitative culture, CDST test, and multiplex PCR for blaIMP, blaVIM, blaNDM genes of MBL producers. Results: Among the 105 clinically suspected VAP cases, the quantitative culture was positive in 95 (90%) and among 95 g-negative bacilli isolated from VAP patients, 46 (48.42%) were imipenem resistant, 30 (65.22%) were MBL producers by CDST, 21 (45.65%) were identified as MBL producers by multiplex PCR. Conclusion: PCR was highly sensitive and specific for the detection of MBL producers.

Fusion of BWM and AHP MCDM Methods to Choose the Most Suitable Secondary School for an Individual in the Context of Bangladesh

Choosing the best schools from a group of schools is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. In this paper, we have represented a method that uses the fusion of two multi-criteria decision-making methods, Best–Worst Method (BWM) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), to rank some of the user preferred alternatives. The system considers the choice of the user and the quality of the alternatives to rank them. User preferences on the criteria are taken as inputs in the form of best–worst comparison vectors to measure the choice of the user. These values are applied to calculate the numeric weights of each of the criteria. These weights reflect the preference of the user. A dataset of secondary schools in Bangladesh has been compiled and used for automatic quantitative pairwise comparison on the alternatives to calculate the score of each alternative in every criterion, which reflects its quality in that criterion. These scores are calculated using AHP. The weights of the criteria as well as the scores of these alternatives in those criteria are then used to calculate the final score of the alternatives and to rank them accordingly. An extensive experimental analysis and comparative study is reported at the end of this paper.

Teaching EFL Writing:

Writing in English has become a challenging task for EFL learners in Bangladesh with the written test-based assessment system and growing importance of speaking skills as part of globalization. So the need for writing skill development remains the same despite the difference in curriculum and mode of communication (native or non-native language) of educational institutions. This study discovered the similarities and differences in the teaching methods of English writing at the secondary level of English medium and Bengali medium schools in Bangladesh. Students and teachers of twelve schools in Dhaka participated in the survey. Data was collected using a questionnaire, interviews, and focus group discussions. Findings show how most of the teachers and students in every medium focused on accuracy of structure and content development rather than the process of writing. Finally, this study suggests some common teaching strategies for improving the writing skills of EFL learners, irrespective of mediums.

Can an Outdoor Learning Environment Improve Children’s Academic Attainment? A Quasi-Experimental Mixed Methods Study in Bangladesh

The present study adopted a quasi-experimental mixed method approach to investigate the influence of an improved school ground on children’s academic performance. In total, 123 children from two (intervention and control) primary schools in Bangladesh participated. In the intervention school, a barren school ground was redesigned with several behavior settings (e.g., gardens and amphitheater) for teaching and learning. Treatment group children ( n = 29) received math and science classes outdoors, while a comparison group ( n = 32) received usual indoor classes. A control school with no changes to the outdoor environment was included ( n = 62). The redesigned school ground was associated with higher levels of academic attainment. Furthermore, all intervention schoolchildren perceived more opportunities to explore in the redesigned school ground. Qualitative insights suggest the diverse settings provided more opportunities to explore, experiment, and work collaboratively. These results highlight the potential for school ground design to contribute to improvement of children’s academic attainment in developing countries.

Ergonomic furniture design for secondary girls school in Bangladesh

This study has been carried out to evaluate the number of mismatches between secondary girl student’s anthropometry and existing furniture dimensions in Bangladesh. In this study, 375 students (girls) are in classes 6-10 in the age group between 10-15 years that have randomly selected from three secondary girl schools in Bangladesh. Twelve anthropometric measurements and seven existing furniture dimensions were taken to find out the possible mismatch. A defined match criterion equation used to determine the mismatch. Various researchers gave these equations. The result indicates that there is a significant mismatch between anthropometric measurement and furniture dimensions. The highest mismatch percentage for seat height is about 90% for class 9. Therefore, 90% of girls use the seat that is too high (high mismatch). Mismatch percentage for seat depth is 100% for all classes. As a result, seat depth is so small for all students. Seat width is 100% for class 8 and 60% for class 9. The desktop height is about 100% mismatch for all classes. This paper also proposes dimensions for new furniture. The new furniture improves the match percentages from 50% to 100%.

Use of ICT by Biology Teachers in the Secondary Schools: Bangladesh Perspective

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have changed the pedagogy in education offering more student-centered learning incidents. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of ICT by the biology teachers in teaching-learning process of secondary schools in Bangladesh. A total of 50 biology teachers from several secondary schools of Bangladesh participated in the study. It was found that teachers have better access to computer than the average populace of Bangladesh. They have working knowledge on Microsoft Office Word, Excel, Power Point, and different web browsers. A good number of the teachers use computer for preparing their lectures, use internet for accessing educational materials, takes classes with multimedia with the support of ICT. However, about 17% to 25% were found to be not using these ICT means. Many teachers opined that they have less number of computers in the school to prepare for class work. They also assessed that hardware troubleshooting, software malfunction and unexpected power failure as challenges for using ICT. This paper recommends to provide continuous in-servicing training on ICT, interest free loan to teachers for purchasing laptop computer and to ensure technical support to overcome software and hardware problems in the schools. Keywords: ICT in education, teaching learning process, biology teachers, secondary school. DOI : 10.7176/JCSD/45-05

Impact of School Dropout on Human Development in Bangladesh

The Human Development Index (HDI) is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions: Education Index, Life expectancy at birth and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. As per Human Development Report of UNDP, Bangladesh was in 136th position among 189 countries in 2017. Education index is one of the important components of HDI of a country. The lack of education, forces the poor household to engage in less productive activities which results in lower GNI. Thus we can see that education has both direct and indirect influence on HDI of a country. Education index is the function of mean year of schooling and expected year of schooling. In 2015, dropout rates of secondary and primary schools were 40.29 percent, and 22.70 percent respectively. By reducing school dropout, the mean year of schooling of any country can be increased which results in a positive change in education index and thus human development index. The present research is an attempt to examine the influence of school dropout on Human Development Index. This study is based on both primary data and secondary data. Primary data have been collected through convenience sampling technique from 200 children who dropped out at different levels of primary and secondary schools in Bangladesh. Results show that the important reasons for school dropout are poor economic conditions, poor performance in school, less interest of parents, less interest of education, lack of school facilities, broken family, orphanage & migration of parents. The study recommends some ways to reduce school dropout. The study also suggests that the mean year of schooling can be increased through the establishment of residential schools, night schools, and through implementing learn and earn scheme by the Government of Bangladesh or other organizations.