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Status of Teachers Education and Training at Secondary Level of General Education in Bangladesh

Nazneen Akhter*, Shafiqul Alam

Deputy Director (P&D), and Instructional Designer, e-learning Center, Bangladesh Open University

Abstract: This is a status paper about secondary level teacher’s education of general steam in Bangladesh. In this study, secondary data used in the paper collected from Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS), Education Ministry, different training institutes and Bangladesh Open University (BOU). This study describes about different institutes of providing teacher education and training in the country. Different graphs and simple statistical analysis are done in this status paper. Regression on time series data shows the increasing trend of trained teacher in Secondary Schools. Further in the last decade the enrolment of B Ed and M Ed students in BOU has observed increasing over the time. Educational structure in simple format and statistics of secondary level trained teachers in Bangladesh are also mentioned to give a scenario of teacher`s educational status. Different ways of providing training to the teachers in open and distance mode in Bangladesh is also discussed.

Keywords: secondary education, teacher’s training, teacher education, open and distance mode, pedagogical theories, BANBEIS, BOU

Citation: Nazneen Akhter, Shafiqul Alam, Status of Teachers Education and Training at Secondary Level of General Education in Bangladesh. American Journal of Educational Research, 4 (12). 907-913. January 2016. doi:10.12691/education-4-12-9

1. Introduction

Quality education is not possible without quality teachers. There is no alternative of teachers training for providing quality teaching to enhance learners’ knowledge, attitudes, behaviors and skills. It is obvious that trained teacher will be able to perform their tasks efficiently than the untrained teachers. Due to recent revolution in communication and information technologies there is some enrichment in cultural, social, economic and political areas in all over the world. In this chain of the change, Bangladesh is moving forward and it is already known as an emerging tiger of the world. Bangladesh Government has given emphasis on quality education as well as education for all. In the Education Policy-2010,it is found that the Government has no-compromise attitude about quality education. In this regard quality teachers’ education and demand-driven training has been given emphasize to develop the professional excellence of the teachers. This article is trying to give a description about the status of Teacher Education and Training in Secondary Level of General Education in Bangladesh.

1.1. Teacher Education and Training

From the very beginning there was a debate between ‘Education’ and ‘Training’. Many people use the word ‘training’ to mean the ‘education’ and ‘education’ to mean the ‘training’. Both of the concepts are closely related and sometimes it is very confusing to differentiate both the terms.

According to Oladosu, A.G.A.S. “The concept of education is related to training” (page 85) and training has to do with the acquisition of specific skills in specific area of specialization. Peters as stated by Schofield (1972) says that training always implies the acquisition of a ‘skill’ and ‘drill’ is an essential part of training whereas education must provide those committed to it with knowledge, understanding and cognitive perspectives.

Rao (2004) views education as a process emphasizing the development of knowledge and moral values required in all walks of life whereas training emphasizes knowledge, skills and behavior patterns required to perform a particular job.

It`s obvious that education is a broader concept and training is used to achieve specific skill. Generally training lies within education.

1.2. Teacher Education

Teacher education is necessary to develop the proficiency and competence of the teachers. Teacher education enables and empowers them to meet the professional requirements and face the challenges of society and time. According to Goods Dictionary of Education Teacher education means, ―all the formal and non-formal activities and experiences that help to qualify a person to assume responsibilities of a member of the educational profession or to discharge his responsibilities more effectively.

Teacher education can be considered as the triangular combination of teaching skills, pedagogical theories and professional skills.

Figure 1. Three angles of teacher education

Teaching skills would be developed by providing training and practice in the different techniques, approaches and strategies of teaching and learning. This skill will help the teachers to plan teaching learning activities for effective classroom.

Professional skills are that type of skills which change to think, act or do as a teacher. In ‘Effective teachers-Professional and personal Skills’ Chelo Moreno Rubio mentioned content knowledge, good planning, classroom management, communication skill and motivation to learning as professional skills of a teacher.

1.3. Pedagogical Theories

Pedagogy means method of teaching. Better understanding on Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology makes a teacher better on pedagogical theories. These disciplines provide the base for better understanding and application of Teacher education.

In Bangladesh Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs) are playing vital role for teachers education. Beside govt. and private TTC`s some public and private universities are also playing an important role for teacher education by offering their different programs in teachers professional development. The existing curriculum of the one year B-Ed program on TTC was introduced from the academic year 2006-2007.This course emphasized on following five learning areas: Professional Studies, Educational Studies, Teaching Studies, Technology and Research Study and Teaching Practice. A revised curriculum on teacher education is going to approve by the government this year.

1.4. Different Phases of Teacher Education

According to Dunking [4] teacher education can be considered in three phases: Pre-service, Induction and In-service.

Figure 2. Different phases of teacher education

These three phases are considered as parts of a continuous process:

Pre-service: An initial course before entering the classroom as a fully responsible teacher. Who has a desire to choose teaching as a profession can enroll in the B-Ed or M-Ed degree with some prerequisite qualification before starting the job.

Induction: The process of providing training and support during the first few years of teaching or the first year in a particular school. According to the National Education Policy-2010 of Bangladesh immediately after their recruitment, primary and secondary teachers will undergo two months’ foundation training and for the college teachers it will be of four months. The primary and secondary level teachers must achieve Certificate-in Education(C-in-Ed) and Bachelor in Education (B.Ed) within three years of joining their post.

In-service: This is an in service process for practicing teacher’s development or continuing professional development (CPD). Under Ministry of Education of Bangladesh there are several development projects to improve the quality of the education. Under these projects teachers are taking training on different pedagogy to meet the current challenges of classroom, new concepts of assessment, use of ICT in teaching- learning and also on the modern techniques of teaching- learning.

1.5. Educational Structure of Bangladesh

Existing education in Bangladesh has three major stages: primary, secondary and higher Secondary. Primary education is provided in two major streams: general and madrasha with 5 years schooling. Secondary education has 7 years schooling with three sub stages: junior secondary, secondary and higher secondary. Secondary education also has three major streams: general, technical-vocational and madrasha. Like secondary education higher education has also these three streams. According to National Educational Policy “-preparatory education conducted together with other fellow-mates will create an enthusiasm for learning in the children. With this objective, a one-year pre-primary schooling must be introduced for 5+ children. Later, this will be extended up to 4+ children.”

Bangladesh educational structure is shown in a simple and easy way to understand the structure of education in Bangladesh.

Figure 3. Educational Structure of Bangladesh

In National Education Policy- 2010 (P.17) it is clearly mentioned ‘the duration of primary education will be extended from Class V [now in practice]to Class VIII. This 8-year long primary education will be ensured for all children of the country, regardless of gender, socio-economic conditions and ethnicity by 2018 through the implementation of appropriate methods. This paper concern with the teacher education and training on secondary level of general stream in Bangladesh.

2. Data and Methodology

In this study, secondary data on yearly teachers education and training from 2010 to 2015 in secondary school level is collected from Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) and Bangladesh Open University (BOU). Microsoft Excel is used to create different bar graphs, pie charts and time series line plots which are produced from these secondary data. Further regression line and coefficient of determinations are produced in the time series line plot to check the trend of the data.

2.1. Teacher Education and Training of Bangladesh

The Government of Bangladesh believes that through quality education, human resources will be transferred into human capital which will uplift the economic activities of the country and hence contribute the development of nation. There are many teacher`s training institutes for different streams like general education, madrasa and vocational/technical education.

Table 1. Number of different categories’ Teacher Training Institutes

From this table it can be said that private TTCs play an important role to train the teachers in secondary level of Bangladesh. The figure also echo’s the above statement.

Beside TTCs there are some institutes like National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) for the secondary and higher secondary level teachers and Educational and Research Institutes (IER) for Higher education and Research at Dhaka University and Rajshahi University also conducts different teacher education programs and researches in education. Chittagong University recently launched IER department. Bangladesh Open University (BOU) also awards M Ed and B Ed degrees through open and distance mode.

Figure 4. Number of TTCs (Source: BANBIES Data-2014)

Table 2. Enrollment on different Teachers Training Institutes of Bangladesh

2.2. Teacher`s Training of Bangladesh in Secondary Level of General Education

According to Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information & Statistics (BENBEIS) in 2014, there are 19,684 secondary schools in Bangladesh with 91,60,365 students. Here 2,32,994 teachers are involved to teach secondary level students. Majority of these teachers achieved their teacher education as B-Ed and M-Ed degree from Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs) under National University, Bangladesh Open University (BOU) and B-Ed degree offered by other universities.

Figure 5. Number of Trained Teacher in Secondary Schools

In the National Education Policy-2010, teacher`s training is emphasized for making quality teachers. A massive change is going on through teachers training under different GoB and development projects. From the data of BANBIES, it is clear that the numbers of trained teachers in Bangladesh are gradually increasing and the projected percentage of this year is about 80%. Beside these, some effective steps has been taken by the Ministry of Education to improve the teacher training system of Bangladesh. Figure 5 shows that in secondary level teachers, there have a increasing trend to get professional training over the time. In every year about 2.23% increased of teacher training in secondary level. If this trend will continue then about cent percent teachers will be trained within 2030.

2.3. The Institutions Responsible for Providing Teacher Training

a) Teachers Training colleges:

Teachers Training colleges are mainly responsible for providing teacher education in the secondary level of Bangladesh. To improve secondary education Teachers Training Colleges (TTCs) provide pre-service and in-service training for teachers. TTCs are working for achieving the quality education in secondary level and developing mid level expert in the field of education through different education programs. Another important activity of these institutions are to provide quality initial and in service teachers training and continuing professional development for the teachers serving in government and non-government secondary schools and thereby enhance their professional competencies.

Table 3. courses offered in Teachers Training Colleges

b) National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM)

National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) plays important role for planning, developing, conducting and co-coordinating for various training courses in educational administration and management, planning and development, educational research for the education manages working and different levels and in different agencies. This Academy is also responsible for conducting Foundation Training Courses for incumbents of Education Cadre of Bangladesh Civil Service who are serving as a teacher of Higher Secondary Level.

c) Institute of Education and Research (IER)

To develop the education of the country some specialized institutes of education and research are established in some universities like Dhaka University, Rajshahi University. Chittagong University. These universities offer many academic programs in education for the teachers and also for the learners who want to involve them in teaching and education research. This table shown different programs of teacher`s education offered by different public universities.

Table 4. Programs Offered by Different Public Universities

Figure 6. Enrolment in B-Ed and M-Ed program of BOU for the last four years

d) Bangladesh Open University (BOU)

Bangladesh Open University is the only public university in Bangladesh which caters education in ODL.A significant number of learners at secondary and higher education levels get the education through open and distance mode of this university. BOU also awards B-Ed and M-Ed degrees as in-service or pre-service program. Figure 6 shows that for the enrolment of B Ed and M Ed program in Bangladesh Open University, there have increasing trend in both program. For B Ed program, the number of increasing students per year is 352 and for M Ed is 67. So it is obvious from the graph that The increasing enrolment rate for B Ed is higher than M Ed education in BOU.

2.4. Teacher Education through Distance Mode

Open and Distance Learning (ODL) has given the opportunity to the learners to continue their education and job at a time. Learners are able to learn at distance without attending the institutions by getting guidance from the tutors and occasional face to face teaching and discussion with the tutors. In this mode, learners get learning materials and the opportunity of seeing and listening programs broadcasted in different media i.e radio, television and web. To provide the opportunity of education to mass people of the country Bangladesh Open University is the unique university with 12 Regional Resources Centers, 80 Sub-Regional Centers, 1475 Study Centers and 23089 tutors are adjunct with 31 formal and19 informal programs. Bangladesh Open University is playing a significant role in teacher education. BOU is offering programs of Masters of Education, Bachelor of education and Certificate in Education. In this University 6134 learners are attaining their education in open and distance mode with the guidance of 730 tutors in 40 study centers with the attachment of 12 RRCs.

BOU has a strong network and resources to train teachers in open and distance mood.BOU has opened a window for them who want to learn with their job.BOU spread it`s network all over the Bangladesh through Regional Resources Centers, Sub-regional centers and study centers. In the study centers we have tutorial classes for the learners. Beside the tutorial classes learners have opportunity to see the lectures on You-Tube and Twitter. Beside printed textbook learners are able to get the textbooks on online. Lectures on television and radio are also broadcasted to facilitate the learners. The mode of operandi for B-Ed and M-Ed program are given in the figure as stated below.

Figure 7. Learning resources of BOU for B-Ed and M-Ed program

All over the Bangladesh many study centers and tutors are serving for learners in different teacher education programs. A table is given below about the program wise statistics about teacher education of BOU.

Table 5. Program wise statistics of teacher education for the year-2014

2.5. ICT in Teacher Education

A tremendous change is going on the teacher education for the last few years. Bangladesh Government is giving emphasis not only on education for all but also on quality education. There are several development projects going on for the improvement of quality education like A2i, TQI, SESIP, SEQCAEP etc. For implementation ICT in secondary and higher education government declared Best Teacher Trainer award for the year 2015.This type of encouragement helps to lead the training at a certain quality level. And also on revised B-Ed curriculum the use of ICT is going to introduce for providing technology based teacher education. Massive training programs are going for the teachers on digital content development and use of ICT in classroom teaching. Very recently Bangladesh Open University establishes an e-learning center to meet the need of the learners and to mitigate the challenges of global educational environment.

2.6. Future Steps for Teacher Education

To achieve the overall goals of “Education for All” a strategic plan should develop future teacher education. Quality education for all is a challenging issue for the government. In order to standardize the quality of all teachers training institutions some steps should be taken. These are

• Time to time curriculum revision for teacher training programs,

• Competency biased assessment,

• Recruitment of qualified teachers in TTC`s and schools

• Teachers training colleges should have link with IERs of different universities

• Co-ordination of different GoB and donor projects.

• Refreshment training for teachers

• Different standard benchmark should be maintained by different levels of teachers.

• Steps will be taken to establish one Regional Academy of Educational Management in each division to accelerate the course-based training programs.

• Continuous assessment will be conducted to evaluate the proficiency of the trained teachers. Any weakness found will be remedied through special measures.

Conceptions of teaching and learning are changing worldwide and there is a revolutionary change in teaching delivery. So we should go forward with these changes and prepare our teachers to meet the challenges of time.

3. Conclusion

Bangladesh is considered as an emerging tiger in the world. Bangladesh is continuing the progress of its development in every sector. Education sector is not out of this. Bangladesh government is committed to serve quality education for the nation. Providing training to teachers and School Management Committee Members, updating curriculum, introducing digital books, and digitalized educational institutes are the milestones of the progress. Still there are some challenges in the education system. To overcome the challenges different GoB and Donner based projects are working together. This paper tried to give focus on the status of teacher education in secondary level of general education.

In secondary level teachers, there have increasing trend to get professional training over the time. In every year trained teacher are increased about 2.23% in secondary level. If this trend will continue then about cent percent teachers will be trained within 2030.

An increasing trend is observed on the enrolment of B Ed and M Ed program in Bangladesh Open University. For B Ed program, the number of increasing students per year is 352 and for M Ed is 67. It indicates that the increasing enrolment rate for B Ed is higher than M Ed in BOU. This paper attempted to pick up a picture of teacher education and training in secondary level. It will help to open a window of comparative studies for further research.

References

[1]  
Oladosu, A.G.A.S. (2001). Concepts in education related to teaching 1: Teaching, training, instruction, indoctrination and learning and their interrelationships. In I. O. Abimbola (Ed), Principles and Practice of Instruction (81-90). Ilorin: Department of Curriculum Studies and Educational Technology.

[2]   | Teacher Education – IV, A Concept of Teacher Education http://www.scribd.com/doc/99484728/Teacher-Education-IV.
[3]   | A Concept of Teacher Education archive.mu.ac.in/myweb_test/.../Teacher%20Education%20-%20IV.pdf.
[4]   | Dunking, Michael, J. (1987) The International Encyclopaedia of Teaching and Teacher Education Oxford, Pergamon Press.
[5]   | Educational Structure of Bangladesh http://www.moedu.gov.bd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=247&Itemid=267.
[6]   | National Educational Policy-2010 http://www.moedu.gov.bd/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=338&Itemid=416.
[7]   | Bangladesh Education Statistics, 2014 BANBEIS http://banbeis.gov.bd/data/index.php.
[8]   | IER. Dhaka University http://www.du.ac.bd/academic/department_item/IER.
[9]   | IER, Rajshahi University http://inst.ru.ac.bd/ier/ibs-at-a-glance.
[10]   | Teachers training college Dhaka. http://ttcdhaka.edu.bd/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48.
[11]   | Bangladesh Open University http://www.bou.edu.bd/index.php/schools/school-of-education.
[12]   | Revista de la Facultad de Educación de Albacete, Nº 24, 2009, (35-46) http://www.uclm.es/ab/educacion/ensayos.