STATUS & CHALLENGES of MULTIGRADE TEACHING in bangladesh Regional research workshop on promoting quality learning through enhanced multigrade teaching in the asia-pacific region 21-23 April 2014, holiday inn Bangkok sukhumvit 22, thailand

Government’s initiative for education Government want to bring all children to school But facing challenges with various ability groupings No accurate statistics available with such problem No study about the real magnitude of the problem Various formal and nonformal approaches have been tried for their education Multigrade Teaching is one of the efforts

Multigrade schools run by DAM Common features Situated in remote and slum areas All five grade students are taught in one class by one teacher Advance and backward learners go by their own pace There is no traditional final examination Key challenges Teacher quality is not up to the mark They have limited training

Small schools Definition: There is no specific definition but school with fewer students are small schools. In nonformal sector 1:30 may be considered as small school No. of small schools : No specific statistics are available No. of students in small schools: There is no fixed number but in NFE program the ratio is 1 : 30 No. of teachers in small schools: only one teacher is available. It is 1:30 Key challenges: (1) Standard size school is not available everywhere in Bangladesh. (2) Lack of well trained teacher in these schools. (3) Schools are not accessible in many places

History of MT in Bangladesh Multigrade teaching school was started by Dhaka Ahsania Mission with UE’s fund The project started in 2007 for 5 years (UNIC – Phase -I ) and now Phase II is running Under Phase I 2,380 Children Learning Centers (CLC) were established After completion of Phase I the second phase started for six years in 2011 Under the second phase 1,850 CLC were established The centers are established in 6 Regions and 44 areas On an average each CLC contain 30 students (max.) with various abilities

History of MT in Bangladesh (cont.) Out of 44 areas 25 run by DAM themselves Other 19 areas are conducted by 6 partner organizations Each center run for three hours for six days by one teacher only Students of 6 – 12 years of different abilities are enrolled in the MT class Several NGOs under DAM are involved in the project: ASOD, CCDB, DORP, PMUK, SURAVI, VARD & YPSA

Teacher challenges Overall teachers background is not up to the mark, they are SSC (min.) They receive 12 days basic training and a day-long refresher per month This refresher is vicarious to their performance skill and follows as it is Availability of teachers in the remote rural area is difficult Generally one teacher is assigned per class Whenever necessary parents are invited to assist

Teaching learning scenario Students are separated into four blocks like, Basic (Gr. I), Advance (Gr. II), Skilled (Gr. III) and Independent (Gr. IV) learners group Entry ranges between 6 – 12 years and with any ability or background A placement test determines the student’s grade levels for different subjects Any student simultaneously may lie in different blocks like for Bangla in advance level but for Math in basic level etc. Three subjects are taught per day and at a time all the grades remain in the same subject like Bangla, Math, English etc. General subject like drawing, music etc. are taught in one big group

Country’s support For multigrade teaching There is no separate policy for multigrade teaching However, multigrade school receive support from external donors Teachers adapt some parts of the curriculum in the school Textbook are provided to children by Government free of cost Physical environment of the class is poor but looks stimulating Teaching materials for multigrade classes are similar to regular class

Existing research on multigrade teaching No research on multigrate teaching is yet done Only official reporting documents are available with the project

Thank you all