Will multimedia school rooms stay a distant actuality?

DHAKA – It was within the late 2010s that the federal government, below its Major Training Growth Programme (PEDP), started offering digital studying gadgets (primarily laptops, projectors, modems, and SIMs) to authorities major colleges throughout the nation. This was a part of an effort to digitalise major training and make trendy expertise extra accessible to kids. Nonetheless, by 2022, it appears that evidently multimedia school rooms stay a distant actuality in lots of instances. As a Prothom Alo investigation of 58 major colleges in Thakurgaon reveals, 58.2 p.c of faculties have laptops that don’t work, 15.5 p.c acquired digital gadgets however no correct coaching, 31.03 p.c have by no means used projectors to conduct classes, and eight.95 p.c acquired laptops that didn’t work from the get-go.

Furthermore, of the 409 colleges in Thakurgaon Sadar upazila, at the very least 27 lack both a laptop computer or a projector, thus making it inconceivable for them to conduct multimedia classes. And whereas some colleges did obtain all the mandatory gadgets, no lecturers have been educated to function these successfully. That is fairly regarding.

There could be no denying that multimedia school rooms assist make classes extra fascinating and charming for younger college students. Just one major college (of the aforementioned 58 in Thakurgaon) was discovered to conduct at the very least one multimedia lesson daily, and its head instructor reported the effectiveness of such classes for youngsters when it comes to info retention. However such tasks, regardless of their potential to vary the lifetime of goal beneficiaries, are sometimes turned futile by the inefficiency and mismanagement of these concerned. Sadly, that is nothing new with regards to authorities tasks, no matter their scale or sector. Even in late 2019, the identical every day reported the same situation in Badarganj upazila of Rangpur, the place digital gadgets offered to 25 of the 26 colleges investigated have been discovered to be amassing mud. In lots of instances, attributable to lack of safety, laptops are stored within the houses of lecturers or different employees members, typically for months on finish, with out ever getting used for his or her supposed function.

All this factors to a recurring situation within the implementation of presidency tasks: lack of follow-up. Why didn’t PEDP officers be sure that at the very least one instructor from every college was being educated to function the digital gadgets allotted to them? Why didn’t the colleges missing educated lecturers attain out to their respective district major training workplace for help? Why have been defective gadgets offered within the first place? And why was a separate funds not given to varsities for the restore and upkeep of those gadgets?

We urge the authorities to take this situation severely and observe up on the efficiency of PEDP-linked major colleges throughout the nation to make the programme a hit. If accomplished proper, digitalisation of our training sector can vastly profit younger college students, particularly when it comes to making ready them to be extra comfy utilizing expertise in the long run.