Less than 1% of the student population attend English medium (EM) schools. These schools, located mostly in the affluent neighbourhoods of Dhaka and Chittagong, promise quality foreign curricula to students and parents. As such, they are increasingly becoming the destinations of children from well-to-do families.
Many of these schools have become prestigious brands which the tiny upper class clamour for. Having grown up in an upper middle-class family myself, I had the privilege of attending two such EM schools and I am about to share with you some harsh truths from personal experience.
Life in an EM school is like growing up in a bubble. The students mostly interact with others of a similar upbringing who are increasingly becoming aware of their elite status in society. The foreign curricula they follow barely talks about the country, its culture or heritage.
Perhaps, one may think that he can get glimpses of the outside world by participating in extra-curricular activities. This hardly helps as the students mostly come across others from very similar backgrounds in debate competitions, football tournaments etc.
By the time one graduates from the system, he looks around and sees many who take pride in speaking proper “English” whilst silently ignoring the fact that they struggle to read and write well in their mother tongue. Moreover, the students become increasingly aware of the fact that they have an immense com-munication gap with 99% of the student population.
They struggle to relate to the other segments so much so that they falsely perceive an imaginary class dif-ference. They assume a false air of superiority as the effects of growing up in the EM bubble kick in.
An average EM student coming out of the bubble starts underestimating his National Curriculum (NC) com-patriots. He reasons that he has a world class education, unlike them. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is a difference between “world recognised” and “world-class.” The NC is a very strong curricu-lum that equips students with in-depth science and mathematics knowledge. Moreover, it gives the stu-dents a better understanding of Bangladesh. Some from the EM learn this truth the hard way while prepar-ing for entrance examinations in top public universities (PUs) like BUET, Dhaka University and public medi-cal colleges.
However, very few coming out of the EM bubble try out for PUs. Their underestimation of the NC often extends to PU education in Bangladesh too.
Many, typically from the upper class, reason that an education from any foreign university is better than one from a Bangladeshi university as the former is always higher ranked.
Yet again, they make a mistake as they fail to appreciate the quality of education in PUs.
There is also a segment of EM students who feel discouraged from enrolling in PUs as they sense that the entire system is unfriendly to EM students. Either way, the gap between an average EM and NC student extends to and beyond tertiary education.
As stated before, an average EM student tends to feel disengaged from the affairs of the country. The cur-ricula followed hardly ever teaches them about the history, culture and socioeconomic conditions of Bang-ladesh, unless they make an individual attempt to do so. They learn about European and American history but not about the language movement of 1952, mass uprising of 1969 or the Liberation War of 1971. They learn about the European Union, Euro Zone and National Health Service of the UK, but not about the state of the Bangladeshi health and economic system.
The relentless focus on the “world-class” curricula of EM schools, and the lack of scope to learn about Bangladesh further exacerbate the problem. Thus, the EM bubble inevitably makes many incapable of ap-preciating the country and its culture and heritage.
This also partly explains the brain drain from the EM bubble, as many feel disenchanted from the country and its affairs as they hardly see an opportunity to contribute to the country. Many struggle to understand the mindset of an average Bangladeshi.
There are obviously several other negative effects of the EM bubble, but I will now divert my attention to an interesting question - why am I talking about this EM bubble when it accounts for such a tiny portion of the student body? Here is the answer:
The concentration of EM school graduates among the top 0.5% of the population is rapidly increasing. The segment holds a significant proportion of the national wealth and owns most major private sector busi-nesses.
Over time, students from the EM bubble will become owners of these businesses and have a strong hold on the private sector.
With very few from this bubble going to PUs and in turn to civil services, they will have little representation in the civil service and other segments of the public sector. Thus, this growing gap between EM students and their compatriots in the NC may extend to a growing gap between the public and the private sector, and may undermine the stability of the country in the long run.
Moreover, the nation might feel uneasy with the idea of seeing the disengaged EM students controlling the big businesses, as the future of the country is inevitably tied to private sector growth.
The time has come for us to take initiatives to burst the EM bubble and bridge the growing gap.
The EM schools themselves hold the key as they can take the first steps to make their students more en-gaged with the country and their National Board compatriots. They could start by including classes on na-tional history, culture, heritage and socioeconomic conditions in their curricula whilst actively organising competitions and programs that include students from both backgrounds.
The government should also adopt policies to bridge this growing gap by increasing representation of EM students in PUs and civil administration.
To conclude, I would like to reiterate that this is not an attack on EM students as I am a part of that sys-tem.
I would also like to state that there is a growing number of students like me who are trying to come out of that bubble by taking personal initiatives to learn, think and care more about the country and actively en-gage with people from different backgrounds and walks of life. However, their number is growing at a slow pace.
