Challenges

Bangladesh boosts a diverse generation of knowledge seekers looking for possible opportunities to further enhance their skills. However, the costly nature of traditional teaching, underutilized resources and limited capacity of education infrastructure to cover 100,000+ schools sets the country back in its efforts to bring forth a well-informed population. This happens at a time when the national curriculum and pedagogy are rapidly evolving, including aspects such as blended education.

Toward a Solution

To overcome this gap, the government of Bangladesh set a purpose to apply and take advantage of existing new technologies to make knowledge readily accessible at all times by introducing an online platform named Teacher’s Portal. It aims to incorporate blended education while developing teachers’ core digital skills across the country. In light of Education 4.0 and the rapid use of ICT in educational sectors, Bangladesh’s ailing teachers’ readiness had to be mitigated in order to implement the concepts of blended education nationwide. Teacher’s Portal ensures equal access for all teachers at all levels of education and vocational training. Teachers are equipped with creative and critical thinking skills, while developing content for the platform. This helps to break down difficult and abstract concepts using real-life examples to help peers and learners to easily adapt to the revised curriculum. By providing equitable access to educational opportunities for teachers, the portal is contributing to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 4 on Quality Education

Under the supervision of the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Ministry of Primary & Mass Education (MoPME), various governmental educational institutions all over the country such as Teachers’ Training Colleges, Higher Secondary and Primary Teachers’ Training Institutes, Institute of Education and Research (Dhaka University), the National Academy of Educational Management, relevant directorates and agencies are directly engaged with Teacher’s Portal. They have contributed in terms of assuring the quality, accessibility, and usability of the platform for teachers in both rural and urban environments. Several NGOs and development partners such as Agami Foundation, BRAC, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), IPA, GrameenPhone, and the British Council also contribute contents and training materials for the further development of the platform and its beneficiaries.

Teachers can post presentations, videos, blogs, and publications on various topics, ranging from general academic subjects to madrasahs and technical subjects. An online repository is maintained where multimedia educational contents are stored, accessed, and shared freely. Fellow teachers can post comments which help content creators to improve through peer feedback. Every fortnight, based on various criteria including their online rating by users, teachers are recognized as the best content developers, innovative teachers, one institution head for leadership, and best online performers.  Some teachers have also been endorsed as ICT4E (ICT for Education) District Ambassadors, selected through their active role in the platform, in their respective school districts, and play pioneering roles in teaching-learning development. Via the nearly 2,600 ICT4E ambassadors, the practice is cascaded all over the country, thus allowing for more citizens to enjoy the benefits of the platform. The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) has recognized them as special consideration for teacher trainers (ToT) in the efforts to disseminate the new curriculum and ensure the sustainability of the initiative.

With a total of around 607,500 registered users, over 60% of teachers all over the country have developed their communication skills after being a part of the Portal. 55% improved their skills for content creation, and 23% of teachers have contributed to the enhancement of their classroom facilities through ICT tools. This has led to an improvement in the collaborative learning environments within the teacher’s community, discovering methods for more efficient professional development and better student-teacher relationships.

The government of Bangladesh emphasizes the blended learning approach as the future of quality education. In addition to ‘face to face professional trainings, e-trainings are viewed as of increased importance for a future-ready education system in Bangladesh. An offline annual conference along with 8 divisional individual conferences across the country take place to acknowledge the vibrant community of learners. Through these conferences, best practices and innovations are showcased, changemakers are promoted and a network for education leaders and decision-makers is created. The divisional progress reviews and motivational seminars are also conducted which encourage teachers to play an active role in the development of their community.

The current collaborations and partnerships of the Teacher’s Portal can act as a model to national and international policymakers on how we could ensure peoples’ access to quality knowledge and competencies in case of a crisis situation. Teachers’ testimonials across several social media platforms have helped to realize the demand for such a diverse platform. The ever-growing repository of 678,000 contents had helped teachers and students alike to refer to during the pandemic, at a crucial time when schools were shut down. The online school and class routine sections were beneficial to provide information instantly across the country.

A government-level collaboration can make it happen where the Teacher’s Portal team can provide technical guidance in implementing the initiative in any interested country. Especially in countries where teachers’ training can be costly or difficult to implement in remote areas, the platform can be a low-cost and easily adaptable solution in order to bring forth Education 4.0 and its relevant skills for budding teachers’ communities.

Teacher’s Portal successfully brought together peer mentoring and collaboration, self-paced learning through practice, and access to quality multimedia contents into one highly effective platform. Upgraded versions of the platform are integrated with AI features to maintain a dynamic repository and understand user preferences. It is not to be considered as a means to an end; rather how it enhances learning outcomes and empowers teachers. Through competitions and recognition at both national and international levels, it has risen from the challenges and proven its worth in building a sustainable future for education in Bangladesh.