Bangladesh is a country of unending experiments and tests-undoubtedly the most important scientific method for innovation, invention and discovery. Yet one thing that is scarcest here is anything new born out of that hard work. Why then are these experiments and tests by everyone everywhere? Because it produces profit, profit and profit. Experiments and tests are so many that no one seems to have any time to do any real work.

This country is dotted all over by diagnostic centers. Doctors physically sit in hospitals but mentally work for these pathological establishments. Because pathological centers also set up hospitals, make them shiny and doctors' lives rich and luxurious. The system is built for earning profit in which pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic centers, hospitals, doctors and salesmen in medicine shops, all are linked in a single chain. In this remarkable system, children die even while having circumcision operation by doctors in this country! Yet the state is unperturbed!

Roads and highways are subject to relentless experiments, new ones paved, pockmarked after a few days and paved again and again. Rivers are filled up, dredged, filled up again and at last owned by powerful people. Bridges are built, demolished and built up again. What great benefits for being a land crisscrossed by rivers, soon to be crisscrossed by concrete slums! This is a country where the easiest way is to be rich overnight if one's brain is free of any compunction. What a joy!

Education sector is also a field for experiments and tests. Not only students are tested frequently, everything is tested every time for no other purpose but testing. Old and new experiments are being done on learners, teachers, classrooms, curriculum and even on test itself. Nothing in the education sector is beyond the grabbing hand of relentless test. Education sector is no more a source of light, but a factory of unnecessary controversies, unwanted suspicions and unhealthy debates.

Every year a storm of controversy rises surrounding changes in textbooks. Almost everything in textbooks-from content to spelling-are made controversial, deliberately perhaps. Religious sentiment, question of national identity, theory of evolution, story of Sharif's turning into Sharifa through gender change, paper and printing quality, cover design-all throw sparks of controversy, resentment and despair.

Are these issues of controversy deliberately made? It might be. Because controversies, errors and mistakes are mines of profit. Mistakes open the door to making money with new businesses-for writing, editing, printing, reprinting, etc. Last year 78 lakh books and 23 crore taka have been completely wasted due to problems with two books of class 6 and 7. This money is owned by people and so none had any right to waste this with the trickery of committing errors first and mending these next. But who cares!

For examples, it can be mentioned that the Math book of Class VI bears weighty names of fifteen scholars in its making, yet there is the word 'grater' on page 154 (in place of 'greater') in the discussion of numbers. Again, names of fifteen scholars decorate the Class IX English book, yet it has misspelt Bengali words for beauty (Shoundorjo), feelings (Onubhob) and explanatory (Bakkhyamulok) on pages 25 and 126 respectively. Of course, we hope these will be corrected in the coming years, but who guarantee with no new mistakes? Don't they say, man is mortal?

In fact, the storm of controversy is raised by a bunch of rogue fault-finders who neither sleep in quiet nor let others have their sleep at night. Society could have been so beautiful if these troublemakers had not existed. But none can wish them off and so we have to take them into account. In our country these faultfinders are a more advanced species and they swoop down on the books even before these are printed. The question is, however, whether those who are responsible for preparing textbooks are completely bind to their existence? Who give tools of criticism into their hands when many of these criticisms are not groundless? That also mistakenly or there is any mystery behind these mistakes?

Our textbook authority seems to be as bold as the Royal Bengal Tiger and so don't care about anyone in the masses. All changes therefore happen without any consultation with people. Here changes hardly grow out of the ground, rather fall down from the sky. We all live at the whims of the authority sitting high above our head.

Take the topic of puberty in the Class VI book on health protection or the much-debated story of 'Sharifa from Sharif' in the social science book of Class VII. Now look into the National Education Policy 2010 where it is stated in Chapter 22 (Students' Welfare and Counselling): "All human beings, irrespective of sex, race, ethnic roots, socio-economic situations and physical or mental conditions are eligible for equal human rights. This very sense will be infused into the students right from the primary level."

This is exactly what education should be like. But in Chapter 16, Women's Education, it is said: "The secondary level curriculum of last two years will include gender studies and issues of reproductive health."

No one made any objection against this intention in the education policy because it is well thought out. The intention was to include reproductive health topic towards the end of the secondary education. Why should the textbook bosses had to jump forward to put the topic into Class VI and VII books and hand out the weapons of criticism to the fault-finders?

It is quite good that the education bosses are so much concerned about the welfare of little learners in the country. Still, why are they so much worried that all the world knowledge has to be pushed tightly into their textbooks? All the solutions for their problems should be in words only? No guarantee of food, shelter, medicine-but making them little pundits about these fundamental matters!

Necessity of adopting of many good steps for the benefits of little learners are mentioned throughout the policy document. But there is little hope of finding these into reality in the near future. Only around 2% of GDP for the education sector is far from adequate to achieve major goals stated in the policy. So, as an alternative, they have to put everything tightly into the textbooks for children.

Putting down words and cutting through them is natural in any exam. But a boy who has been doing this cutting through exercise across the whole paper throughout the exam period naturally proves himself someone without any preparation. Similar things have been going on with the curriculum and other issues in our education sector for long.

Now this driving lesson must be ended and the steering wheel should be put into someone's hands who is knowledgeable, responsible, honest and capable of leading like a matured person, not an amateurish boy. The interests of the future generation of Bangladesh should be above the interests of textbook writers, printers, guidebook publishers and everyone else. Those in the leadership should know this, but unfortunately, they don't.

The author is Editor, Biggan O Sangskriti