Primary students to get 100% books in January: Adviser

Primary level students will receive 100% textbooks in January, but there will be no celebrations like before, Primary and Mass Education Adviser Professor Dr Bidhan Ranjan Roy Podder said today (1 December).
 
"There are questions about the quality of primary school teachers recruited before nationalisation of primary schools in 2013. However, the physical infrastructures of primary schools and general quality of teachers have improved," he said while talking to local reporters at the inauguration ceremony of a two-day workshop, organised by the Directorate of Primary Education on the RDRS premises this afternoon. 
 
Director General of the Directorate of Primary Education Dr Md Abdul Hakim, its Rangpur Divisional Deputy Director Md Azizur Rahman and Assistant Director Nazrul Islam were present. 
 
Later, the adviser attended the two-day workshop titled 'Fifth Phase Primary Education Development Programme', organised by the Department of Primary Education as the chief guest.
 
Professor Bidhan Ranjan said there is a difference in the quality of teachers recruited before nationalisation of primary schools.
 
He said, "We've our own training programme. So, if a teacher has potential, then there is an opportunity to train him or her to improve performance."

The primary goal of the Directorate of Primary Education is to ensure that students completing the fifth grade can read and write fluently in their mother tongue and effectively express their thoughts in writing. 

The fifth-grade students should be able to do simple calculations, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and works are going towards that goal. 
 
He said, "While visiting different government primary schools in Nilphamari and Rangpur, I spoke to the teachers and students there. The school infrastructure is good, well-equipped, but attendance is not 100%."
 
There are teachers, but the students have not achieved what they should have achieved. This is not new. The results of the survey conducted across the country every year are also like this. 
 
Regarding the distribution of textbooks in the New Year, he said, "I hope that primary school students will get 100 percent of the new textbooks in January. We may not be able to give them away with a festival like in the past."
 
He said there was no significant change in the syllabus in the primary school. 
 
"However, we have made some changes in the books for the third, fourth and fifth grades. Our fourth and fifth grade textbooks will reflect the uprising of the students and the public in the form of various stories and pictures," he said.