Education in Bangladesh in general and in Dhaka City in particular is in dire need of change. The city’s primary school system must be overhauled. School dropout rates and cases of juvenile felonies are unacceptably high. Students are not provided with clean, safe and appropriate learning environment. To make the city better, the mayor should try to change the schools for the better. City children deserve no less, and no mayor could ask for a more noble challenge.
The mayor should be the primary school system’s strongest advocate and its strictest monitor. There are incredible obstacles. The money is scarce. Charters of responsibility are confusing. Second-guessing is constant and the demand for instantaneous solutions is unending. However, these daunting factors should not be used as excuses for inaction or the lack of results. The mayor should get personally involved to provide a safe, clean and appropriate learning environment.
The residents cannot wait to study the problem by commissioning another high-level committee. They don’t have to fight to figure out whose responsibility is what. They cannot wait another year or two to decide. The lives of children are at stake. The country’s future is in danger. So the City Corporation must act and act now. For a six or eight year old child, missing a year virtually means about the loss of a lifetime. Everyone knows what is the problem and most of the people know how to fix the problem, but no one seems to be willing to act or do something. As Franklin Roosevelt said in 1932, “it is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.” Change has to happen now and the mayor is the one who must make it happen. Therefore:

• The City Corporation, in partnership with the private sector, should set up new universities with campuses nearby around the city.
• The City Corporation in cooperation with the private sector and NGOs should ensure that every mahalla or community has a primary school. The City Corporation primary school system should be overhauled and reinvented to ensure good physical and mental health and the psychological growth of young children.
• The City Corporation should encourage the private sector to establish colleges and universities in cooperation with foreign universities.
• More playgrounds and parks should be established so that school-going children get more opportunity to play after school hours.
• Public libraries with a minimum of 3000 books should be set up in every ward initially. In due course, steps should be taken to establish a central city library. In addition, institutions like “Bishwa Shahitya Kendra” should be encouraged and patronized to provide such services.
• The City Corporation should undertake training of at least one teacher at each primary and secondary school to act as a counselor to tackle and motivate truant young boys and girls so that they do not drop out from school.
• All schools within the City Corporation limits should develop extracurricular activities or courses. A minimum of three extracurricular subjects, one each from the categories given below, should be taught. For example:
   

  Athletics	Cultural	Vocational
  1. Swimming	1. Dramatic	1. Photography
  2. Football	2. Painting	2. Agriculture
  3. Cricket	3. Vocal Music	3. Gardening
  4. Tennis	4. Instrumental Music	4. Mechanics
  5. Hockey	5. Debate	5. Electronics
  6. Gymnastics	6. Creative Literature	6. Electricity

  
   
•  All schools should, at the appropriate level, offer basic and refresher courses in subjects such as:
  • public health,
  • public nuisance,
  • personal hygiene,
  • public safety,
  • prevention of infectious diseases,
  • human rights,
  •  democratic practices,
  • and safety measures and self-preservation during cyclones, floods and earthquakes.
• The City Corporation should work with the government to set up a separate education board to cover only the Dhaka City Corporation area.
• The City Corporation should set up its own education authority. Such authority should be headed by a “Director of Education.” The main function of the Director should be to improve the curriculum and quality of education within the city.
• In every ward, with the cooperation of a citizens’ committee, interested NGOs and the Department of Primary and Mass Education, planning and step-by-step execution must begin immediately to establish at least two primary schools in every ward. All primary schools should be situated close to a playground.
• Cultural activities, sports, games, health care and physical education courses should be made compulsory in every primary school within the City Corporation area.
• In cooperation with private sector initiatives, a Citizens’ Committee and the Directorate of Secondary Education, the City Corporation should plan and execute a targeted program to set up at least one high school in every ward for quality education. The curriculum of such schools should be equivalent to that of the best schools in the region.
• The City Corporation should set up separate university campuses under its jurisdiction at various locations within the city.
• In other words, the Dhaka City Corporation should be a leading partner in the national agenda for human development, and Dhaka City should offer world-class schooling and higher education.