Barrister Al Amin Rahman writes for DOT :
Stress free quality education is the need of this age. This century demands the capacity of managing and assessing all the knowledge we have generated and the value addition we bring to it. For that, we need to understand the meaning of education first. The word “Education” is derived from the Latin word – Educere, which means ‘bring out, lead forth’ (meaning of philosophy & education”, available on http://uafulucknow.ac.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/1.pdf). It also means that a child is not an empty box to fill up. It is the parents and the teachers who have to bring the best out of a child. Education is comprised of harmonious, physical, mental, social, emotional, technical, and spiritual development of the child. Today, education is traumatic and exigent due to the conventional parameters of academic assessment and evaluation, which infuse fear in the mind of a child. There is insane competition among the students. Both parents and students have fear of being branded as failure. We have forgotten that success is a journey, not a destination; and success requires hard work.
I am a lawyer by profession. I have been practicing law in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh for a long time. I was not always a good student in my early childhood. Sometimes I did well and sometimes I failed. My father was my guide. He used to encourage me for doing better every day. Even when he is no more today, his words push me even now towards success leaving behind my failures. My teachers were sometimes disappointed on me in school but it was my father who pulled me up and showed me the right path.
Recently a class IX student of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College committed suicide at her residence allegedly due to humiliation by her teachers.
She was a teen ager who could not bear the pain of seeing her parents being insulted for her act. Being a father of a daughter I cannot imagine the pain that Aritri’s father is going through. Aritri could be someone’s child among us and if we do not do something today to change this education system, this case is likely to repeat.
If we look at Finland, we see their education lif¬ted them out of poverty. Now the reason I chose Finnish education system as an example is because it is known to be the best in the world. Finland has an equal school system, a science-based teacher training programme and a high regard for teachers, which make Finland’s education system the best in the world. Within a period of 50 years, Finland has developed from ascetic conditions to the global cutting edge. An equal education system and high quality teaching in schools have played a significant role in this process (Source: Education lif¬ted Fin¬land out of poverty, but we need to keep de¬vel¬op¬ing to re¬main at the cut¬ting edge, Kirsti Lonka, 12 December 2018).
Therefore, if we still do not look for the best practices of education systems around the world and adopt them, keeping the so called culture, excuses, and expectations of our society behind; we may lose more precious lives like Artiri and we may not stand as responsible parents. With Aritri, her parents also died. We must take necessary action to put an end to this kind of incident.
The author is an Advocate of Bangladesh Supreme Court and Partner at FM Associates, Bangladesh.
Email: alamin.rahman@fma.com.bd