- Md Abdur Rahim
Children need one investment most for receiving proper & smooth education & that is to confirm they’re proper ages to start their educational career. Investment of age & love is the best of investments in a child’s life for their best growth. I have nursed five of my younger brothers’ educational lives though they have grown to face acute poverty. I have taught students for about 16 years from 1987 to 2003 as a tutor. I was a teacher at a college. I have also taught & nursed primary school students in my village Jaigeer under Singair Upazila, Manikganj during my DU student life. So, I have had the opportunity to know why students don’t grow themselves. Why do most of them leave their study lives in the early or middle paths of their study lives? This is only for their tender ages. If they are given more times at least eight years when they start their educational career in class one, it will make them unable to confirm they’re proper education lives with proper growth.
Investment of age is a must for proper & higher growth of a child’s life. In fact, age is the best of investment for a child’s life while education is the best investment in everyone’s life. As parents, we give everything, food & clothing, care & housing, love & affection, & so on. And the government is providing better classrooms, teachers, educational materials, scholarships & so on. They are getting everything. But we seldom think about their ages. We seldom invest ages in their studies. Are they capable to bear the load of their studies? How is it possible for them if they are not capable to carry the load of their studies? If they fail in their middle paths or in their starting points, they will be left behind, they will be disappeared, and they will be abolished from the screen of education. Every child has a life. He has the right to stand in society as a well capable person. What are their faults? They cannot decide for themselves. They are like mud that we always confess. They are dependent on our decisions. We decide about their lives as we have grown up than they. For our proper decisions, they are properly grown. But for our wrong decisions, they become abolished from their study lives & from their whole lives. They suffer in their whole lives for the wrong decisions of ours, for the wrong management of ours. It is indeed terrible. The wrongs are ours but the sufferings are theirs. What a sort of punishment it is! Punishment happens without their wrong or crime. It should be stopped for the benefit of our children & for the development of the human race & the nation as a whole.
Children are our future. If they are not properly grown educationally, how will they contribute to society? How will be their future? How will be our future? How shall we be succeeded? Today’s plants are the big trees of tomorrow. If plants are not properly nursed, how shall we get the high-up trees? Trees need strong soil to be grown up. They cannot be planted in the mud or in the croplands. In the mud or cropland, we can sow dal seeds but not any very high-up trees. They are needed to be planted in the strong soils in the highlands or beside our houses. In the strong landmass, the plants of today shall grow strongly & become strong & big. This highness & strength of soil help today’s plants to grow strongly as the big trees. The big trees are required to face the cyclones like Siders.
Education is the backbone of a nation. Education is a must for everyone’s life. Education is the most powerful weapon for bringing any change. Our National Freedom is also for our education. DU & nationwide other Universities & educational institutions have played a vital role in this regard. The leaders had shown the right paths & the messages have been transmitted to all & it brought our dearest Bangladesh, a sovereign country in 1971. The message of independence has been spread for the awarenesses created by dint of education. The countrymen were awakened by the messages of our great leaders especially by our greatest leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mojibur Rahman in his greatest speech on the 7th March in 1971. This awaking is for education.
Teaching is the transmission of knowledge while Education is the transmission of values. How education will transmit values? For this, we need to educate our whole nation. To educate all, we need easy education, we need pleasant education. We need to make our education easily receivable. We have Schools, Colleges Madrasah, Universities & all. What we don’t have? Our Government & families are giving our all. Our Children’s lacking lies in their weaknesses of ages. Our children go to Primary School at a very tender age. Most of the parents are not so educated. The children don’t get any educational help from their families. Our teachers try their level best. But they cannot be successful. Because their receiving power is very poor for their poverty in ages. If they are given at least two years of additional time to start their schooling, they will be rich in age, rich in receiving power & rich in knowledge. They shall be dutiful of their own. They shall carry the teachers’ massage properly & they shall be the strong assets & strong pillars & strong backbone of the nation. Proper age is the first proposition & preparation. Age is the best of all investments in receiving education.
If we give them proper ages, our teachers will be enough for their studies. Children will require no house tutor. In many educated families or in the factory workers’ families, parents remain out of the family for earnings. From whom will our kids take help for their studies? If they are given the proper ages, they must be self-sufficient & self-reliant on the help of their school teachers. As we don’t invest proper ages, they are burdened with their books. They become inattentive in their studies. For this, they consider their studies as their burden of lives & they try to flee from their studies. Parents try but they leave their studies. Thus drop-out starts.
I can clearly remember that we the 72 students from 12 primary schools got ourselves admitted into our Joymontop High School, Singair Manikganj. Only two have passed the SSC with First Division. And these two have received DU Education & have got First Class job. Only another ten have completed graduation. What is the fault of the rest 60? As our parents are not educated or highly educated, we have not got family supports for our daily studies. We had to depend fully on our teachers for our studies. Our teachers were very much helpful & dutiful & we have been successful. What about the rest 60 or 70 of our friends? Why couldn’t the rest 60 have their SSC? Why couldn’t the rest 10 graduates get DU or University education? Faults of their own? Absolutely no. Faults were the elders & the sufferings are the smaller sides. It is strange terrible.
I was so young in an age in class one. I did not get educational help from my family. My father had a great view to make us educated. But he did not go to school. He knows how to read Bengali well. He taught me Bengali in classes one & two. For that, I was good at Bengali. As my father could not help me in Mathematics, I was so weak in Mathematics. But my maternal uncle & aunts were BUET & DU students. I have had their touches. I have been successful with their regulations, suggestions & loving hands. But the rest of my classmates did not get this support as I & they could not meet their successes. If they were given proper ages & proper guidelines & support, they could have succeeded. Age itself teaches us. We learn from our ages. Age itself is our teacher.
L A G Strong, the famous short story writer of the USA considers tender aged learning as the food of the adults in his short story ‘Reading For Pleasure. Adults’ food is indigestible for the children. This food brings stomach ache & makes them sick. In their own words Strong,
” It is like giving a young child food only suitable for an adult. Results, violent stomach ache & indigestion.”
We generally assume that the students don’t prepare their lessons as they don’t read. But it is also true that they don’t read because they cannot read or understand. So, proper age investment is a must for proper education. Proper age will bring proper pleasure to their studies. So, the writer, L A G Strong had rightly written from his own experiences in his story Reading For Pleasure, “Reading must be for pleasure.”
In the story, Strong says, “As my ankles were weak, I was slow in learning to walk. My grandmother used to teach me at home. I read all types of books. The forbidden books lasted the longest of all. My father had a wise and tolerant view allowing me to read all sorts of books for my proper growth. He never forbade me to read any kind of book. He had allowed me to read all sorts of books. My father was proved right in his opinion.”
Age is the first of all. Age is the first pillar for receiving education. Age brings awareness to our children. The mouth of a jug is broader than a bottle. A narrow-mouthed bottle takes more time to be filled up. But a jug & a tub take less time to be filled up because of their receiving powers. Proper age creates receiving powers to our kids like the tub where a less aged kid fails to receive an education like the narrow-mouthed bottle.
We the Bankers are engaged in the busiest job. We cannot give sufficient time to our kids. If we consider the proper age for their development, it will be the best investment for our kids, for our future pillars & backbone. In the end, success is required. We must peep into their successes. We must not do it in hurries but in results.
Is there anything wrong with starting child education lately? I am acquainted with two children who were the same age. One has started two years ago & the other two years later. The earlier one was so tender in age & passed the SSC, HSC, Graduation & Masters all in the Second Divisions/Classes. Two years later, one had passed the SSC & HSC with distinction results. Now he is a BCS Cadre Doctor & the first one had not yet been employed. If someone starts his educational career later & starts his professional career better, which one we will prefer? We must think about the brilliant results obviously by starting later but not initiating earlier. A Bengali Professor serving at Harvard University, the USA who had never been second in his educational career, once talked on a Talk Show, “One who has started earlier & finished the work later & the matter to see is either he is satisfied or not.
Earlier is better but satisfaction comes from well done. It requires time. The proverb “The earlier is better” is not seen as true everywhere like the proverb, “All that glitters is not gold”
Md Abdur Rahim: Deputy Managing Director, BASIC Bank Limited