Bangladesh Breaking News Bangladesh Revolution 2024

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Man....they're still delululu. 🤦‍♂️ Apa apa apa!! 😆

 
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One of the biggest achievements of the previous Awami League government, as boasted by Sheikh Hasina herself time and again, was "illuminating" every house in the country by taking the country's electricity production capacity to unimaginable heights.

While the capacity was 4,942 MW in January 2009, it is now claimed to be standing at around 28,000 MW.

And yet, since Hasina fled the country, there has been a new surge of load-shedding. Even though the daily demand has been hovering between 14,000 MW and 16,000 MW, well below the supposed capacity, load-shedding has sometimes been in the excess of 2,000 MW.

As a result of that, prolonged power outages lasting 10 to 12 hours a day are affecting rural areas. According to Power Development Board (PDB) data, the regions most impacted by these power cuts include Rajshahi, Rangpur, Cumilla, Mymensingh, and Sylhet. Even residents in metropolitan cities, including Dhaka, are experiencing frequent load-shedding throughout the day.

So, has Hasina taken all the surplus electricity with her to Delhi?

Not quite. The electricity crisis had already been simmering beneath the surface for some time because of Hasina's endless list of corruption, as well as her lack of foresight. Now, the load-shedding is, in effect, the direct shedding of the load of Hasina's wrongdoings onto the people.

The combination of several factors are contributing to this, including corruption, irregularities, a shortage of gas, coal, and oil due to unpaid arrears, as well as technical issues.

Corruption and irregularities

The Hasina government had embarked on an ambitious plan to construct numerous power plants, including rental and quick-rental plants, without ensuring a steady fuel supply or adequately assessing demand.

This resulted in a substantial increase in electricity generation capacity, which now far exceeds the actual demand. But the increase in capacity was accompanied by a dramatic rise in rental costs, which have surged 16-fold over the past decade.

The cost of renting these idle plants has imposed a financial burden on the government, leading to increased electricity prices for consumers and a rise in government liabilities.
According to reports, the total expenditure in the power sector during the three terms of the Awami League government is $28.3 billion. Considering the current exchange rate ($1 = Tk119.93 as of 12 September 2024), this amounts to Tk3,39,401 crore.

At the same time, just in the name of capacity charges, Tk1,00,000 crore has been looted. In other words, the power plants have taken this huge sum of money by merely showing their capacity without producing electricity. Most of these plants are owned by Awami League leaders or businessmen close to them.
Hasina was in charge of this ministry for 15 and a half years.

Allegations of corruption and inefficiency within the power sector are also directly affecting the power crisis.
The Matarbari power plant, for example, has been plagued by corruption-related issues, leading to a drop in its power output. Corruption and irregularities have allegedly caused production to fall to 850-900 MW, significantly below its full capacity of 1,200 MW.

Gas shortage

The country needs 3.80 billion cubic feet of gas daily, but currently only 3 billion cubic feet are available. Of this, LNG deliveries from two floating terminals in Maheshkhali and Cox's Bazar supply 1.10 billion cubic feet.

Moreover, at least 25 gas-fired power plants have been shut down since 27 May when Cyclone Remal hit the coastal areas. In particular, the prolonged shutdown of the Summit LNG terminal since the natural disaster has worsened the situation.
As a consequence, the daily gas supply has fallen to 2.60 billion cubic feet, with gas allocated to the power sector decreasing to 820 million cubic feet. Approximately a month and a half ago, gas-based power plants were capable of producing up to 6,500 MW. Currently, however, production has reduced to about 5,000 MW.

"The shutdown of the LNG terminal has reduced gas-based power plant production by 1,200 to 1,250 MW daily. This is the main reason for the current load shedding crisis," PDB Chairman Rezaul Karim told reporters on Monday.

Coal and oil shortage

Adani's power plant in Jharkhand is expected to provide 1,500 MW of electricity daily. However, the plant's outstanding electricity bill has surpassed approximately Tk9,500 crore, with nearly Tk5,900 crore of this amount being overdue.

While it is crucial to investigate why Hasina accumulated so much debt with Adani, it's equally important to examine why she agreed to such a high-priced contract in the first place. Was she pressured by India, or did she do it voluntarily for her own benefit?

Whatever the reason, Adani and Co. are now demanding payment, and the delay in settling the bill is affecting coal imports for the plant, causing its production to drop to 1,000 MW.
The supply from Tripura, India, has also dropped, with only 60-90 MW being delivered per hour instead of the expected 160 MW.

Though 1,000 MW was expected from India's public and private sectors via the Bheramara link, only 880 MW is currently being received.

The Matarbari power plant is also facing difficulties in purchasing coal due to import challenges.
Oil-based power plants in the private sector are also unable to meet peak demand as they also owe a lot of money. Furnace oil imports also faced a dip due to the dollar crunch, according to PDB officials.
Still, in response to the reduced gas supply, there has been a shift toward oil-based power generation, significantly increasing production costs. Currently, over 4,000 MW of power are being generated from furnace oil, according to PDB sources.

Technical issues

Petrobangla officials claimed that despite numerous requests from the government, the Summit Group has been unable to restart operations at its LNG terminal. As a result, the national grid is missing out on 500 million cubic feet of gas per day (MMCFD) from imported supplies.

Technical challenges are said to be one of the key reasons delaying the reopening of the Summit LNG terminal.

Another power plant facing a shutdown due to technical issues is the 525MW Barapukuria power plant. This has resulted in an additional shortfall of 280 to 285 MW, which would have otherwise supplied electricity to Dinajpur and two other districts.

The plant is anticipated to remain offline for an additional two weeks.

 

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Isa Khan

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Isa Khan

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Finland, a Scandinavian country, has a highly merit-based and high-level training-dependent system for recruiting teachers at every educational stage, from primary through higher education. Teachers' salaries are also significantly higher.

According to information from Finland's Ministry of Education and Culture, the monthly minimum wage for a lower secondary school teacher is approximately equivalent to 3,318 dollars in local currency, which is about 28 times higher than a teacher's salary at the same level in Bangladesh. Additionally, there are many more benefits. As a result, the country's most talented individuals are often most interested in pursuing a career in teaching.

The previous Awami League government in Bangladesh had initiated a program to introduce an education curriculum modeled after Finland's. However, the preconditions for effectively implementing this curriculum were largely ignored. There were also complaints about the quality of the textbooks prepared for the new curriculum. Despite significant expenditure on teacher training, questions were raised about its effectiveness from the outset.

After various processes, the implementation of this curriculum began last year. At that time, teachers, students, and parents started raising questions about the new curriculum and the textbooks created for it. There were allegations that the curriculum did not take the country's real context into account and that the content of textbooks for lower secondary and secondary levels was of poor quality. However, the government of the time claimed that the new curriculum was designed based on the education systems of advanced countries like Finland, the United States, and Japan.

The development of the new curriculum and the creation of textbooks involved senior officials from agencies under the Ministry of Education and educational experts. According to a notification from the Ministry of Education, the National Curriculum Coordination Committee included prominent educators such as Dr. Muhammed Zafar Iqbal, former professor at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology; Dr. Amal Krishna Haldar, professor in the Department of Mathematics at Dhaka University; Dr. Lafifa Jamal, professor in the Department of Robotics and Mechatronics Engineering; Dr. Mehtab Khanam, professor in the Department of Psychology; Dr. M Tariq Ahsan, professor at the Institute of Education and Research (IER); Iqbal Rouf Mamun, professor in the Department of Chemistry; Abul Momen, professor in the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Chittagong University; and Professor Nehal Ahmed, former Director General of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, among others. The heads or members of various relevant institutions were also included in the committee by virtue of their positions.

Two chairpersons of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), Narayan Chandra Saha and Forhadul Islam, as well as Curriculum (Secondary) member Professor Dr. Mashiuzzaman and Curriculum (Primary) member Professor Md. Mukhlesur Rahman played a crucial role in the development of this curriculum. The research and pilot projects related to the curriculum were essentially carried out under their supervision.

When asked about this, an NCTB official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, "The work related to the curriculum was primarily managed directly under the Chairpersons and Dr. Mashiuzzaman. They controlled how the textbooks would be developed and what changes would be made. Additionally, Dr. Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and Dr. M. Tariq Ahsan played significant roles in creating this curriculum."

The initiative to develop and implement a new curriculum for primary and secondary education in the country began around 2017. Shortly after the initiative was launched, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) began research and survey activities related to the new curriculum. However, there have been allegations that these research and survey activities were conducted cursory from the beginning.

Due to the failure to correctly identify the challenges and weaknesses in implementing the new curriculum and textbooks, various complaints emerged immediately after its launch. Following the fall of the Awami League government on August 5 due to a student-led uprising, the interim government decided not to implement this curriculum and to revert to the 2012 curriculum. By then, several thousand crore Taka had already been spent on the initiative.

Bangladesh is among the most backward countries in Asia and even the world in terms of teachers' salaries in government schools at the secondary level. Talented individuals show little interest in this profession, and many of those who do enter teaching lack the necessary training.

There have been complaints that in 2023, the new curriculum was implemented in the first, sixth, and seventh grades without any teacher training. Although training was later arranged, there were significant complaints about its quality. Teachers struggled to adapt to the new curriculum, which impacted the classroom environment. Parents also complained that students became overly reliant on Google while studying under the new curriculum.

Additionally, there were allegations that the importance of science education was diminished in the new curriculum. Previously, students could choose between Business Studies, Humanities, or Science after passing the ninth grade, but this option was not included in the new curriculum. Under the new curriculum, all students must study a mandatory set of 10 general subjects.

As a result, where students used to have to take exams totaling at least 400 marks in subject-specific areas in secondary education, the number of marks allocated to science subjects in the new curriculum was reduced to 100. At that time, educators claimed that if everything were taught in an integrated manner, students would not have enough time to learn each subject adequately. This, they argued, could particularly lead to a further disinterest in science education.

Analysis of several curricula reveals that, since 1990, science has received the most minor emphasis at the secondary level in the curriculum. In 1990, public exams for secondary education included 11 subjects with a total of 1,000 marks. Of these, science subjects accounted for 300 marks, 30 percent of the total marks. By 2000, the SSC exams included 11 subjects with 1,100 marks, and science subjects were allocated 400 marks, making up 36 percent of the total.

In 2017, there were 14 subjects with 1,300 marks, of which 400 marks were allocated to science, representing 31 percent of the total. Under the new curriculum, for the 9th and 10th grades, there are 10 subjects, with science accounting for only 100 marks out of 1,000, which is just 10 percent of the total marks in the secondary exams.

There were also questions about the quality of the content in the textbooks provided for the new curriculum. The science books for grades six through eight faced the most criticism. Among those responsible for writing these books was Dr. Zafar Iqbal.

There were allegations that a significant portion of the content in these books was directly translated from Google and even copied and pasted from various foreign blogs. Additionally, there were accusations of including controversial topics in the seventh-grade history and social science books.

Despite multiple attempts to contact the National Curriculum Coordination Committee educators regarding this issue, it was impossible to reach most of them. Professor Iqbal Rouf of the Department of Chemistry at Dhaka University told Bonik Barta, "I was not involved in the overall curriculum development. I was involved in a chapter related to food security within the health protection subject.

I believe this chapter is important for students in the current context. However, there were indeed many challenges in this curriculum. We have also discussed various issues, including the lack of teacher training. However, I disagree with the sweeping statement that it is unrealistic. The true nature of the curriculum would become apparent after one or two years."

Meanwhile, although the curriculum has been canceled, BDT has already spent several thousand crore on its implementation. Nearly BDT 10.29 billion was spent solely on teacher training over the past two years. Although there have been questions about the quality of this training from the beginning, a World Bank-funded project called "Learning Acceleration in Secondary Education (LASE)" was also launched for teacher training, costing BDT 35.05 billion. Several other initiatives were also undertaken, including creating a unique app named "Noipunno" and other related efforts.

Among the educators who have been vocal about the various limitations of the new curriculum from the outset is Professor Dr. Tanzimuddin Khan of the Department of International Relations at Dhaka University. He told Bonik Barta, "There is a relationship between curriculum changes and political economics in our country.

This is because such changes often lead to foreign loans and involve the printing of textbooks. In other words, there is a financial opportunity for certain groups. As a result, these changes are sometimes made without considering the overall context, so our education system suffers."

He further stated, "Primary education is the foundation of a country's education. However, the state of primary education in our country is still precarious. If we want to improve our education system, we must focus on two things.

First, we need a clear goal on how we want to develop our students, and second, we need to consider the real context of our country. If we blindly follow the curricula of other countries without considering our context, it will not be feasible in our country, and our objectives will not be achieved."

Immediately after taking office, Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud, the interim government's Ministry of Education advisor, commented that the new curriculum was not feasible. He said, "In many cases, this new curriculum is unsuitable for our country. Implementing the new curriculum with our current teachers is very difficult, especially regarding the examination and evaluation methods.

Therefore, we will revert to the previous curriculum as much as possible. However, this will be done in a way that does not cause any discomfort to students who are currently following the new curriculum. Revisions will be made accordingly. No decision will be made that might cause students discomfort. The Ministry of Education has already issued instructions and a circular regarding this matter."

 

Isa Khan

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Isa Khan

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Isa Khan

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Isa Khan

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Isa Khan

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All of them were shot during the andolon and had a leg amputated.

Location: BRAC Limb & Brace Centre

photo- hasan misbah

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Isa Khan

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