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PVT TEACHERS TRAINING

Colleges too ill-equipped to breed good teachers

ASHIQUR RAHMAN
An astounding number of private teachers training colleges under the National University (NU) in the country are running without maintaining even the minimum academic standards, raising a serious question about the qualification of the so-called trained school teachers they are spawning out.
The NU in recent times cancelled one by one the registrations of 11 out of a total 82 such colleges across the country for lack of initiative to comply with the basic academic requirements despite repeated warnings, an NU source said.
But the colleges are still in operation by warrant of stay orders obtained from the High Court on the registration cancellation, the source added.
Visiting a number of the 17 private TT colleges in the capital, The Daily Star found they realise a fee of around Tk 10 to 15 thousand from a student for a one-year bachelor of education (B.Ed) course. But, the matter of providing proper training to the teachers hardly gets a priority there.
Most of the colleges in the city are housed in rented buildings, though the NU requires at least an acre of own land for establishing such a college. Again, though the NU guidelines dictates that a private TT college must have a minimum of eight classrooms, more than one classroom is rarely seen at these colleges.
The NU requires such a college to have 80 percent full-time faculty members. But most of the teachers, according to the students, are parttimers.
During the visits, Rajdhani Teachers Training College at Nilkhet in the city was found to running activities in some rented rooms of the Nilkhet High School building.
“We generally run the college after the school period or during the weekly holidays,” AKM Mizanur Rahman, principal of the college, said.
Asked if the college has any computers, he said, “The computers of the college are kept temporally in another place for security reasons.”
The principal also argued the NU requirement of one-acre campus for a private TT college is not a reasonable one.
Abdul Hakim, principal of Mohanagar Teachers Training College at Azimpur, runs his institution in a two-room rented house. One of the rooms is used for classes and the second for rest of the activities.
When asked about the mandatory library, he pointed at a medium-size bookcase with a handful of books in front of his table, but he could say nothing specific about the computer facilities his college should have.
Principal Hakim rather blamed the NU for the poor condition of his college, saying, “They never give us any financial or other support.”
In a different note, the principal of Dhaka Metropolitan Teachers Training College at Farm Gate, Kumkum Dhar, said, “I will try to shift the college campus to our own land by the deadline set by the National University on June next year.” She said the college has already purchased a land for its campus at Sheorapara.
Lack of classrooms and very poor facilities were also seen at Bangladesh Teachers Training College in the same area.
The students of the private TT colleges also seemed little concerned about the poor academic facilities, as they can get their B.Ed. certificate without attending classes regularly, which is not possible at the government colleges. They also can carry on doing jobs, one of them said.
NU Inspector of Colleges Professor M Abdul Hamid acknowledged the grim condition of the private TT colleges. “Whenever we get allegation against a college, we instantly take stern action against it,” he said.
When asked how so many colleges received permission from the NU without meeting the bare necessities, he said, “When the National University finds a private teachers training college almost fulfils the basic requirements, it generally gives it permission to establish, setting a certain deadline for fulfilling the other criteria.”
But another NU official said, requesting anonymity, the NU authorities are often forced by political pressure to give permission to a private TT college.
The official, however, emphasised bringing the colleges under the umbrella of the monthly pay order (MPO) programme and providing them with financial supports and other facilities.