Mohiuddin Alamgir

Over one month after the introduction of televised classroom lectures for school students, guardians are still not happy about the quality of the lessons.

Many said although it is a positive step for continuation of education under the circumstances, they are still finding problems to find old lectures due to the lack of organised archiving, while there was at least one incident of a silly mistake in a lecture.

Gendaria Girls Government Primary School teacher Deeba Saha appeared to have a slip of mind while writing an addition equation on a live TV class, aired at Sangsad Bangladesh Television in mid-April, a clip of which drew some flak on social media.

Contacted, Gendaria Girls Government Primary School headteacher Rina Rani Saha failed to provide the phone number of Deeba Saha, and said it was human error. “She has good track record as teacher,” Rina said.

Directorate of Primary Education Director General Md Fasiullah said they were aware of the incident. “We are looking into the matter and will talk with the content validator and teacher,” he added.

The government on March 29 started TV education through Sangsad TV for secondary students, on April 7 for primary students and on April 19 for technical and madrassa students, so that students can make up for some of the losses due to closure of schools.

All educational institutions have been closed since March 17, and the government has now extended the closure till May 16, in a bid to stem the further spread of Covid-19.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on April 27 said all educational institutions may remain closed till September if the situation caused by the coronavirus outbreak does not improve.

Selim Reza, parent of a schoolgoer from Sirajganj, said people of their locality cannot see the Sangsad TV clearly due to some technical problems. “Class activities were not interactive,” he further alleged.

A guardian from the capital’s Dhanmondi said the videos of classes are not uploaded in an organised way. He said he looked for over an hour to find a lecture that were aired earlier.

He looked for the lecture on the Facebook pages of a2i, and “Amar ghore amar school”, and the Youtube channels of Robi 10-min School and other places where they were uploaded in a scattered manner.

“These [class lecture] videos are uploaded so haphazardly across the internet that no one can find a lecture that they want with a sane mind, let alone the presentation and consistency. This is all a massive sham,” he said.

KM Enamul Hoque, deputy director of the Campaign for Popular Education, said education through TV is a positive initiative. “It is releasing stress of students living at home. It is also continuing their learning habit in the emergency situation”, he said.