Breaking away from the traditional reliance of Bangladeshi primary schools on rote learning, the new method aims to engage different parts of a child's brain, so that a musically inclined child should learn more from songs and a visually orientated child more from pictures. They were given training in interactive teaching, including dancing and puppetry, to make learning an enjoyable experience for children. But they insist that though the ideas are good, this programme at its core is indifferent to the main problems facing primary education, which is chronically underfunded. But I have 43 students enrolled into my class. It would be much more difficult with a larger group,' she says, 'and teaching primary is very tough.
Parents only have one or two kids to worry about while a teacher often has nearly a hundred at hand.
He is convinced that 'teachers could do it in the time that they have, no matter how large the class'. As this suggests, there is a bitter lack of understanding between the project designers and the teachers to which the Government seems completely indifferent. All the decision-makers sitting in Dhaka are of college background. Backed by the requisite resources and introduced with respect, initiatives like this might well be 'ideal'. As it is, it looks like another long shot in the dark.