Title: My Beautiful Bangladesh
Location:
Categories: Technology
Education
Culture
Status:
In Planning
Timeline:
Ongoing
Description:
 My Beautiful Bangladesh is a project which hopes to make education in Bangladeshi schools more relevant and engaging so that students understand and appreciate their country and are set on the path of becoming socially aware, inclusive and responsible citizens. We aim to provide students and school-teachers guidance on maximizing the learning experience and improve their access to relevant, thought-provoking and unbiased educational materials about the history, culture, society, jurisdiction, economy and environment of Bangladesh.
In Bangladesh, students complete a broad education by Class 10 before moving onto more specialized courses in higher secondary school (Class 11 & 12). This project is aimed at students of Class 4 – 10 to provide them a wide perspective of Bangladesh and where it stands in the global perspective to help them take a more informed decision about what they want to study and do later on in life. The project is based in Dhaka city but will reach out to all parts of Bangladesh.
Background:
Bangladesh is a developing country that has made significant and commendable progress over the past decade in tackling illiteracy and improving access to primary education. Our youth (age 15 - 24) literacy rate is now at 72% compared to an overall rate of 43.1% (UNICEF, 2007). Yet, improving the quality and relevance of the educational experience in classrooms is something which has received much less attention from the government and developmental organizations.
Bangladesh has three schooling systems: English medium (following the British GCE curriculum or the IB system), Bangla medium (following the national curriculum) and Madrassa (following an Islamic curriculum). None of their curricula are particularly relevant to relevant to life and work in Bangladesh. Students feel alienated from their country and cannot make the most of their school years. Many fail to see Bangladesh beyond its problems, and this lack of patriotic attachment feeds our crippling brain drain. There are also very few high quality, accessible training programs for schoolteachers. Most of the programs run by the Primary and Mass Education Division of the government are targeted at Bangla medium teachers, leaving the vast majority of teachers in the English medium and Madrassas to learn on the job.
Purpose:
We exist to make education in Bangladeshi schools relevant and engaging so that students understand and appreciate their country and are set on the path of becoming socially aware, inclusive and responsible citizens.
Mission:
We aim to provide students and school-teachers guidance on maximizing the learning experience alongside access to relevant, thought-provoking and unbiased educational materials about the history, culture, society, jurisdiction, economy and environment of Bangladesh.
Vision:
Engaging, relevant and unbiased classrooms all across Bangladesh which help build socially aware and responsible young people who are actively engaged in creating a better, peaceful and more inclusive Bangladesh.
Objectives:
Although the project is currently in the planning phase, we have drawn up a list of goals and objectives for the first year of My Beautiful Bangladesh project, starting July 2010:
[1] To create a website in English & Bengali to teach students about Bangladesh and to provide teachers resources and support on making classes more relevant and engaging. The website will tentatively be launched in December 2010/January 2011, with a Beta version of the site available for test-running and evaluation by October/November 2010.
[2] To run interactive, free-of-cost educational workshops for students and teachers, supported by a monthly/bimonthly newsletter for schools. Work on this phase will begin if the website is considered a valuable and important educational tool by schools, parents and professional thinkers and academics. In the first year of workshops, we hope to hold at least 30-40 workshops for 30-100 people each (20 for students, 10 for teachers) in schools across Dhaka (city and district) before moving onto the other districts (Chittagong, Rajshahi, Khulna, Sylhet and Barisal). The newsletters will be delivered to schools across the country, especially to those which lack access to computers and the website.
[3] Ensuring that a mandatory general studies course is implemented in all schools in Bangladesh from Class 4-10. Through the project, we hope to raise enough awareness and support to ensure that the government to introduce a mandatory general studies course covering the areas touched on by the website, workshops and newsletters. We hope to raise awareness through the media and by garnering support from schools, parents, education experts and developmental organizations
Budget:
This budget was drawn up for the first year of the project's run. The budget for the workshops and newsletters includes estimates for a series of 30 three-hour workshops. Each workshop will have 30 participants (thus 90 in total).
Workshops & Newsletters
Needs:
Project Team Staff:
For phase one of the project (the website), we are hoping to recruit the following unpaid volunteers by mid July 2010: one website designer, two/three people for the multimedia & design team, four website content managers, two English-Bengali translators and three/four people for the community outreach team.
Volunteers are expected to commit 10 hours of their time every week. Please contact us for further information if you are interested to participate in the project.
Facilities:
* Venues for holding the workshops (schools, universities, public auditoriums).
* A reliable, advertisement-free, cost-effective website host.
Equipment:
* Laptop projector & projection screen
Contact Name: Miss. Alaka Dhara Halder
Contact Email Address: ahalder@princeton.edu; thistlewine@live.com
Contact Phone Number: Please ask :)
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