We can introduce a public examination at the end of the primary grade 6 (proposed here) and award a Primary School Leaving Certificate (PSLC) as is the norm in many countries mentioned above. We know many students are dropped just completing the 5-year primary. Such students would be kept in the schools for an additional year.***

THE wealth of a nation lies in its people -- their commitment to the country and community, their willingness to strive and persevere, their ability to think, achieve and excel. Education is the way to all these virtues.

Education systems in all the countries of the world follow a general pattern consisting of the Elementary (primary), the Secondary, and the Tertiary (or higher) levels. Many countries have several subsystems of education at different levels. The most important subsystem is that of the general education. Many Muslim nations have a religious education subsystem beginning from the primary level. Most countries have a technical education sub-system usually starting from the secondary stage.

Bangladesh is an Asian country. There are about 49 countries in Asia. We can have a look into the education systems prevailing in the Asian countries to see where we are and what we can do to develop the system in our beloved motherland. The present write up focuses on primary education.

Duration of primary education

The elementary education in many countries starts with kindergarten, and Asian countries are not an exception. But this stage of elementary education is nowhere compulsory. Usually the formal and compulsory or "basic education" begins with the primary grade one. The duration of the primary education varies from 3 to 10 years in various Asian countries. But the most prevailing trend is a 6-year primary education. Half (24 countries out of 49) of the Asian countries follow this pattern. of the 23 countries of Asia studied in detail, 15 (about two-thirds) follow this 6-year primary education pattern. The countries are Bhutan, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, North Korea, Philippines, Saudi

Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Thailand. The second trend is having a 5-year primary schooling in 7 countries excluding Bangladesh (that is not counted in the 23 because we are collecting information of other countries to make changes here in Bangladesh). Most countries neighbouring Bangladesh follow this 5-year primary education as in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. The duration of primary education is 8 year only in Turkey.

During the last three years' attempt I could collect education systems of 182 countries. The duration of primary education in 87 of them is 6 years. In 28 countries the primary education is up to grade 8 (mostly in the cold European countries), in 19 countries up to grade 5, in 16 countries up to grade 9, in 15 countries up to grade 7, in 11 countries up to 4 years, and in only 3 countries each up to grade 10 and 3. The 6-year primary seems to be universal across the continents.

our neighbouring India (since 1992) and Pakistan (1998) have has also a plan of elevating the primary education up to grade 8 from the present 5, but they are still failing to implement it.

Subjects studied in different countries

The subjects studied at the primary level can vary but every country puts emphasis on the mother tongue (and also the state language and English in many countries) and mathematics. Apart from language and mathematics, some type of physical education and arts/music are also practiced from the very beginning.

Religion is a compulsory subject in 11 countries out of the 23 studied. The countries are Malaysia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Turkey. Moral education (in place of religion) is taught in China, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, North Korea, and Singapore. In Singapore, moral education is a non-

examination subject. Neither religion nor moral education is compulsory in India, Myanmar, and Hong Kong.

Science and social studies are usually taught from grade 3 or 4, and rarely from grade 1 (e.g. in China, South Korea, and Japan).

There is yearly pass-fail system in every grade of the primary level in countries studied. Besides, in 12 out of the 23 countries, there is provision for a public examination on completion of the primary stage and these countries also award a Primary School Leaving Certificate (PSLC). Such countries are Bhutan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Myanmar, Thailand, Taiwan, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Turkey.

Bangladesh context

The present day Bangladesh had informal and indigenous system of education nurtured by local elite (termed the 'gurus') prevailing before the Mughal period and even before the Hindu kings. People having thirst for knowledge, used to work and learn under the guidance of such gurus. During the Hindu kingships and the Mughal period, rather formal primary education system developed in Tolls and Maktabs respectively. The Britishers started the secular formal education including the primary, secondary, and higher levels. After the end of British colonial rule and the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, Pakistan had a 4-year primary education, 8-year secondary and 4-year higher education system under the Calcutta University or the later (1921) established Dhaka University and Dhaka Board. The duration of primary education was elevated to 5-years in 1953.

Bangladesh was born as an independent country on December 16, 1971. In the very first year (1972), primary and secondary education was dependent on the system prevailing during the Pakistan days. Since history had changed much we read the 'Diary of Bangladesh' as the social science course in 1972. The

Bangladesh Education Commission (the first commission) was formed (under the chairmanship of our most illustrious scientist Dr. Kudrat-E-Khuda) that year and the report was published in 1974. By this time some committees prepared some curricula based on which the 5-year primary and the 7-year secondary education were going on.

The Bangladesh Education Commission proposed an 8-year primary program to fulfill the Unesco requirement of compulsory schooling up to 14 years of age. Since then all the education commissions (including the Majid Khan Commission 1983-84, the Mofizuddin Commission 1988, M A Bari Commission 2002, and Moniruzzaman Mia Commission 2003) and curriculum committees formed later on, also supported this 8-year long primary education, but we could not implement the plan in the long 32 years. So we are to delve some depth why this could not be implemented.

The readers can see the most prevailing primary education in Asia (and also in the entire world) is of 6-year duration. Countries like China, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, etc. did not dare to make primary education up to grade 8 or 9. Education of grades 7-9 is still studied in secondary schools. These countries declared education up to grade 9 as "basic" to fulfill the Unesco requirement.

The 5-year primary education in Bangladesh is usually accomplished in two shifts in most of the schools. So the elevation of this stage up to grade 8 seems an over-ambitious plan and practically is beyond our capability. Even if we can somehow afford to prepare the necessary infrastructure and can also appoint the required number of qualified teachers, the actual standard of education, especially in grades 7-8 would lower rather than improve because of tagging these grades with the primary instead of the secondary.

I think our present infra-structure can hold the primary education up to grade 6, that is not only the Asian but the most prevalent world pattern. However, the discriminatory provision of the required educational qualification for teachers (SSC for females and HSC for males) should be made uniform and must be elevated to HSC for both the sexes so that the teachers can teach up to grade 6 better having the required

expertise.

We can introduce a public examination at the end of the primary grade 6 (proposed here) and award a Primary School Leaving Certificate (PSLC) as is the norm in many countries mentioned above. The elevation of the primary grades from 5 to 6 would have double benefit. We know many students are dropped just completing the 5-year primary. Such students would be kept in the schools for an additional year. The second benefit would be making the primary-passed students eligible for entering the vocational/technical education providing them skills to do something valuable for their livelihood and also to enrich our manpower nationally. It may be mentioned here that China provides for technical education just after completing the 6th grade primary (though we have this provision after completion of grade 8).

The subjects in the primary level can remain as is now: Bangla, English, Mathematics, Natural Science, Social Science, and the individual Religion. Some educationists opine that the foreign language (English) can be excluded from the primary but most linguists and psychologists suggest languagelearningfrom earlychildhood.

We have a problem with the madrasa education subsystem in all levels including the primary. The Ebtedayee Madrasa (being the elementary stage of Aliya Madrasa system) follows our basic national curriculum but subjects like Bangla and English are studied only in brief. Some students like to transfer from madrasa to the schools later on and find difficulty in coping. So the basic subjects should be declared core and compulsory for both the madrasa and the school students. Masrasa students can learn Islam in detail in place of the Islamic studies taught in schools. They can learn Arabic as an addition to school subjects. But no compromise can be made with basic subjects since many madrasa students later like to join the mainstream school education. The Qaomi Madrasas should also follow the national curriculum, whatever other subjects they may wish to teach in addition.

Abdus Sattar Molla is a specialist, MDU, NCTB, Dhaka.