In the last twenty years, the percentage of science students at the secondary level has halved; a trend that experts say has been triggered by the lack of laboratory facilities in schools.
The absence of science laboratories in many schools means students do not have any practical experience of the “wonders” of science by the time they reach secondary level, according to experts in the field.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (Banbeis) in 1990, 42% of students chose to study science in the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations, which fell to 22% in 2010.
Figures from Banbeis reveals 37% of the country’s schools do not have science laboratories, including many public as well as private schools in the capital.
Arifur Rahman, a class nine student of Dhaka’s Mirpur Government High School could not recall the last time he attended a science “practical” class.
“We have very brief practical classes just before the exams to get enough marks to pass. This does not happen just in our school, friends from other schools also have similar experiences,” Arifur told the Dhaka Tribune.
At the Mirpur Adarsha Bidyaniketan about a hundred class nine and class ten students are studying SSC science but their school does not have a science laboratory. Students at the school said there are around 50 of them studying science, but the school’s science laboratory only has two or three gadgets.
The students said they hardly ever attend practical classes because the school’s science laboratory is not equipped for practical experiments.
The school’s head teacher Shahjahan Chowdhury admitted the school laboratory lacks provisions for students. He, however, blames the situation on the lack of adequate government funds to purchase necessary equipment. He said: “We received Tk5,000 seven years ago and nothing more since then.”
Morshed Alam a programme officer of Bangladesh Freedom Foundation, an organization working to promote science education said: “This scene prevails in almost every school. Science laboratories are often ignored.”
Expert in the field said the situation is worse for rural schools. Data from Bangladesh Freedom Foundation indicates 66% of rural schools do not have any science laboratory facilities.
Khairul Islam a schoolteacher from Khulna told the Dhaka Tribune. “Very few students from rural schools are familiar with science experiments because most schools do not have science laboratories.”
According to Professor Nazrul Islam, vice-chancellor (VC) of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet):
“Science education is simply impossible without practical classes. Science is not a subject that you can learn only by reading books. Children’s interest in science can only grow if they learn new ideas in practical classes.”
The VC said students joining Buet often do not have any knowledge of scientific experiments because they attended schools that did not have laboratories. He said: “The absence of laboratories in schools will have long term and very serious impact on the country’s overall education system.”
Commenting on the noticeable drop in the number of secondary level science students, the chairman of Dhaka University’s applied physics department Dr. Md. Adnan Kiber said: “The number of science students is decreasing at an alarming rate.”
Dr Kiber warned it would be detrimental for Bangladesh, and said: “We might not feel it now, but this will have a lasting effect on the country’s overall development.”
