iSchool Revolution

iSchool, an evangelic initiative by an MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) student Raqeebul I Ketan, paving the way to change teaching method in Bangladesh.


By Mahbub Manik

‘Acid turns litmus paper red and base turns it blue’, most of the Bangladeshi school students memorize this basic of chemistry just by heart without experiencing it in lab and understanding the reasons behind it. The scenario is almost same for; it may be a theory of mathematics, laws of pendulum or respiratory system in human body. This is how science education walking, of course, walking behind the time.

Education is the key to changing and unlocking the windows of local and global opportunities; to establishing sustainable equality and harmony in society, instigating people to better living style, provoking them to think to research, innovation and discovery, moulding the mind for modest attitude to human kind. “Education is the backbone of a nation”, the oldest adage said, so a nation’s strength and future totally depend on its education system. With the fastest advancement of science and technologies, teaching methods are also evolving around the globe, and state-of-the-art facilities and cutting-edge technologies are enriching education system. A better education system consists of better curriculum, testing, instructional tools, teacher training etc.

Our problems

Bangladesh where iSchool happens. The country situated in South Asia.

Bangladesh is a developing country of only 147,570 square km area and has been struggling hard to provide basic needs like food, housing, clothes, medicine etc to its around 160 million people. So it’s easily guessable that the education system here is mainly century old, static, one-way, monotonous and non-productive. Education system becomes dependent on coaching centres and private tuition. Most of the students go for blind memorising their courses without proper understanding, just to get good grade, because of the lack of good teachers, lab facilities and good textbooks. There are some good schools, but most of the students are deprived of good teachers and good schools. Millions of students drop out of primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities each year. One of the main reasons is that they can’t do better in classes. Even after completing their tertiary education, most of them don’t get suitable job and can’t compete in local market with those who got better opportunity during their student life, let alone global market. Because of the blind memorisation students become not only unproductive but also counter-productive. They can’t be skilled, innovative, risk-taking and entrepreneurial. We are proud, that with this backdrop there are some extraordinarily talented Bangladeshi students who can make a position in world’s top universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, etc every year. But this is an exception and exception can’t be an example.

So wee need change in teaching system
There were many committees to reform education system. Debates have been going on about the instruction media, religious studies, duration of schooling, but little was talked on modernising the teaching method for all students.

Raqeebul I Ketan, the idea owner

 

 

Hence, the country should congratulate and engage with Raqeebul I Ketan, a Bangladeshi youth studying in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He has been thinking how to make our teaching system more interesting, understandable and easier since his school life here in Dhaka. He initiated an idea branded as ‘iSchool’. MIT is the heaven for this kind of initiatives. He presented his idea to MIT PSC (Public Service Center) in 2008 and could convince the authorities to award him Peter J Eloranta Fellowship and David J Shapiro Fellowship subsequently.

Ketan shares his school life experiences. He says,” When I was a student of A level, I hated chemistry. This mysterious subject has often eluded me. My impromptu remedy to this learning dilemma was blind memorisation. Soon I came to the realisation that I was not really learning chemistry, I was merely gathering facts, facts that would make no difference to my understanding of science. “
He continues, “After my A level I got into MIT. I got advance standing (meaning that I did not have to take the preliminary courses) for physics and math but for chemistry. My impression about the futility of blind memorisation grew stronger than ever.” He ends, ”Now I not only imagine but also work towards the goal of establishing iSchool.”


iSchool solution

iSchool's action flowchart.

iSchool envisions to develop a video lecture series for SSC (O level) and HSC (A level) both in Bangla and English with interactive components e.g. animations, slide shows etc that would be cost-effective and must not rely only on the usage of computer and viewable using a TV and VCD player. The content would be distributed to schools at free of cost. The content will be portable in CD, VCD and available in website. Teachers can show videos after completing the relevant chapter to students, once in a week, at least. School has to buy or rent a PC or a TV. The content will be complementary of the textbook. Volunteers of iSchool are using MS PowerPoint, Bangla font software Abhra and video capturing software to build the contents.

Progress in iSchool

The team building work is in action ...

iSchool launched its programme for the first time in a remote village in Panchagarh district with some 150 students as a test phase of the suitability and sustainability of the initiative in January last. The outcomes proved to be highly encouraging. The core mission of the project; to devise a low-cost sustainable solution, was achieved. Volunteers from IBA, Dhaka University compiled the animations, meaning that the administrative and design costs were null. The cost of blank DVDs added to the rental cost of DVD players and TVs, was minimal. Most importantly, the animations proved to be highly effective with students showing improvements up to 35% in their test score. Professor Peter Dourmashkin of the department of Physics at MIT helped design the test questions and later performed a post-programme evaluation. The students in each merit category performed substantially better after watching the videos. The improvements were more marked in tackling the qualitative questions and were most significant among the lower merit group students
The content building work for SSC’s (O level equivalent) physics is in full progress. Volunteers from IBA, BUET, BRAC, EWU and many other universities joined the project. Team building meeting are held regularly. The workload is huge.

Revolutionary movement

This how the content will be delivered to students.

The iSchool initiative can be revolutionary, if the content building work can be finished successfully and material can be reached to all schools across the country. Students then really can understand and visualise the formulas, graph, equation, definition etc instead of memorising by heart without proper concept of the topic. Teachers will be more efficient; students will not go to coaching centres. The number of dropout of schools will be decreased. That can shift our teaching system from one way to interactive, counter-productive to productive, chaos to creative, monotonous to enjoyable, and burden to freedom.

[ The article is also published at Weekly Economic Times ]