EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

         

 

Heartening SSC results

Underlying messages merit attention

WE congratulate the education ministry, boards, schools, parents and students for the overall results.

There has been an upbeat note to the results of the secondary school certificate examinations. The institutions under ten education boards including madrasa and technical streams have accounted for a combined pass rate of 82.31 percent. This is a record-breaking success. But just. While in the high achiever GPA-5 category, the number has marginally increased from 62,132 last year to 62,788, the number of all-pass schools has dropped from 2,927 last year to 2,017. Both in terms of high achievement and pass rate in the madrasa stream, there's a decline.

The results have a qualitative dimension that is heartening. It augurs well, too The introduction of creative system in five new subjects meant the students had to go through the textbooks rather than apply any shortcut. Dependence on note and guide books has been largely reduced. Classroom instructions have acquired a new importance.

Deeper down, however, the results reveal a growing gap in educational standards between urban and rural areas. The urban schools, particularly those run on public school model, like the cadet colleges, have accounted for the best of results. They are better equipped, offering extensive classroom engagements in addition to tuition. Barring other reputable government institutes, we are left with a very large number of schools in upazilas and unions which neither have trained teacher nor a minimal equipment base. They are poorly managed as well. These large majority of schools are faced with teacher-student absenteeism. They are handicapped by little or no monitoring. A serious effort must get underway to bridge the urban-rural gap. Otherwise, we will be fuelling we-they culture.

The immediate concern before the large number of successful candidates is admission to colleges. They will have to compete hard to be enrolled in reputed colleges. What happens to those who do not get berth in the sought-after colleges as well as to those who do not find a place even in colleges of middling quality? They will be frustrated. We must find avenues for their absorption if we are to keep them on course and not lose them into the wilderness.

CNG price hike

Address the fallout effectively

THE government has raised the price of the compressed natural gas (CNG). Reasons being cited for the hike is to reduce the di parity between the prices consumers pay for other fuels and that being incurred in case of CNG use. The second argument is to increase revenues for developing the gas sector.

From an overall economic standpoint, there is a rationale for an upward price adjustment to cut back on subsidies. But to what extent and with what frequency this would be done ought to be important considerations to be weighed carefully before hiking the price.

CNG price was increased by 100 percent from Taka.8.50 to Taka 16.75 per cubic metre in April 2008 by the then caretaker government. This time it is a fifty percent raise in three years time. There is an element of abruptness about it.

Here comes the question, as to why the authorities did not decide on putting some kind of a limit on conversion of vehicles to CNG in the first place. It has been free for all as people of all strata settled for conversion including the upper end of the economic class. This perforce led to staggered intake of gas at the filling stations and now the price hike.

We are now left to face the fallout of the CNG price hike. All manner of CNG using transports have immediately raised their fare. The tendency is to enhance fares out of proportion to increase in CNG price.

We feel the government will have to immediately intervene to make sure that the increase in transport fares is strictly proportionate to the increase in the CNG price.

Higher transport costs have a way of raising prices of essentials, something that the government will have to attend to within the framework of its overall endeavour to keep consumer prices affordable in the face of rising inflation.