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Bangladesh Bioethics Society 2010; 1(3):47-51

               
UNDERSTANDING LESSONS OF ETHICS IN THE PRIMARY EDUCATION 
OF BANGLADESH

Alamgir Kabir1 Mehedi Imam2 

 Director, A K & Associate, adakapn@gmail.com
2 Managing Director, Adhuna Bangladesh Ltd. m.imam@adhunabangladesh.com

Abstract: In a bid to understand the lesson of ethics in the existing primary education 
according to government approved syllabus in Bangladesh, a survey was carried out in 
Dhaka and Kushtia for students studying at class 1 to class V, teachers and guardians. It 
has  found  that  majority  students  are  aware  of  ‘right  and  wrong’.  Their  source  of 
learning  are  parents  as  mostly  found,  followed  by  teachers  and  both.  Majority  of 
guardians think text books contain ethical knowledge and they are insufficient. All the 
teachers found the textbooks contain ethical  knowledge and education but only one 
forth of them found those as insufficient. On appropriateness of the lessons, only a few 
teachers were satisfied but majority felt the need of ethical knowledge according to age 
and psychology.  In  the  text  books,  moral  lessons  are  found in  religion,  social  and 
environmental context as a mere advice. They are available in the form of do’s and 
don’ts. Stories carry ethical  lesson but no individual lesson/chapter was found to be 
available  in  any  books.  The  paper  has  tried  to understand  the  existing  syllabus  in 
government  run  primary schools  up  to  class  V  through  interviewing  students, 
teachers and guardians so that the level  of lessons taught,  and the need to learn the 
ethical knowledge can be assessed.

Key words: Lessons of Ethics, Primary Education and Bangladesh

Introduction: Primary level of education in Bangladesh is provided in various schools 
rather than a unified system in parallel with government approved/run syllabus. There 
are other syllabuses also to teach in primary level. Class V is the last step of primary 
education.  Recently the national education policy has been drafted and introduces a 
new primary level of education where class VIII will be regarded as the last tier for 
entering into next level of education.

In this  background, this  is  an effort  to understand the existing ethical  lesson in the 
syllabus in government run primary schools up to class V through interview students, 
teachers and guardians so that the level of lessons learnt in terms of acquiring ethical 
knowledge and the need for learning the lessons can be assumed. This is also can lead a 
wider research involving experts from various disciplines.

Objective: To study the lessons of ethics in the primary level of exiting education and 
their extent in the textbooks and teaching systems.

1

2

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mailto:m.imam@adhunabangladesh.com
mailto:adakapn@gmail.com


Bangladesh Bioethics Society 2010; 1(3):47-51

Methodology: The study adopts a triangular methodology which includes a) reading of 
the books of the primary level  b)  interviewing of students,  teachers  and guardians, 
particularly parents and c) secondary data analysis through a number of sources such as 
web, papers and other printed materials.

The survey was conducted in June - July 2010 in two towns – Dhaka and Kushtia to 
catch up two different geographic locations.
It should be noted here that no personal information/socio-economic information was 
collected/recorded in terms of interviewees name, address, gender, age etc. 

All statistical analyses were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science 
(SPSS)3. 

Sample Number:
A total of 93 persons were interviewed through a structured questionnaire and those 
include the following categories of respondents. 

Respondent No Percentage
Teachers 15 16.13
Students 55 59.14
Guardians 23 24.73
Total Number 93 100

Limitations of the study
Kindergarten and English medium school syllabus  were not studied which is  being 
taught in a large number of KG and English medium schools. Further, no interview was 
taken of trainers of the primary school teachers.

Findings:  Findings  of  the  questionnaire  survey  from three  groups  are  summarised 
below separately followed by findings of the books of the primary level of education.

Students
– Out of 55 students, 43 students are aware of ‘right and wrong’. It has also found that 

they can differentiate among these two. 
–  Their  source  of  learning  are  parents  as  mostly  found (27  students),  followed by 

teachers (13 students), both (8 students). 
– It is importantly noted that a few said about learning from relatives such as grand 

parents, other relatives in a close family. 
– The highest response (36) on ‘what lessons you have learnt’ was received by ‘Always 

speak the truth’, followed by ‘never tell a lie’ (3). But ‘read timely’ was also 
received response from 5 students. 

– Telling lie has been the most received response (37) as an unethical act, followed by 
disobeying parents (3), misbehaving with people (2). 

– The study team was interested to inquire what sort of stories these students are fond 
of – 28 students love to listen ghost story, followed by fantasy (22). 

– Fairy tale received the 2 responses while stories with moral lessons were liked by 3 
students. 

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Bangladesh Bioethics Society 2010; 1(3):47-51

– 83.6 % of students (46 students) feel guilty after doing a wrong and they all are ready 
to ask forgiveness. 

Guardians
–  39  %  respondents  as  guardians  (9  persons)  think  text  books  contain  ethical 

knowledge  and  they  are  sufficient  while  69.6  %  (16  persons)  find  the 
knowledge is appropriate. 

–  They  have  expressed  they  provide  ethical  knowledge  to  their  children  at  home 
through  advising  them to  speak  truth,  practical  experience  etc.  This  is  also 
supported by their family members. 

–  All  the  guardians  feel  the  necessity  of  learning  and  teaching  ethical  knowledge 
through providing more suitable knowledge on ethics with particular focus on 
making a habit by practice. 

– 21 guardians admits of social anarchy can be linked any way with the teaching of 
education and ethics as well. 

Teachers
– All the 15 teachers found the textbooks contain ethical knowledge and education but 

only 26.7 % (4 persons) found them as insufficient 
– Those who do not find they are sufficient, feel the need of more lessons, constant 

care form family and relatives. 
– On appropriateness of the lessons, only 6 teachers was satisfied but others feel the 

need of more knowledge according to age and psychology, practice both in the 
school and home. 

–  Most  of  the  teachers  (12  persons)  received  training  on  ethics  and  13  teachers 
informed that they used to provide ethical knowledge outside the textbooks 

– The need of ethics and spreading of its knowledge was felt by all the teachers and 
expressed that the knowledge should have to be spread in a better way, utilising 
up-to-date methodology 

– The teachers mostly unwilling to make any link of social anarchy with the lack of 
ethical  knowledge (12 teachers)  and the three  teachers  find that  knowledge, 
family and society can mould children mind. 

Books
• It has found from studying the text books that such lessons are found in religion, 

social environment as a mere advice. They are available in the form of do’s and don’ts. 
• Stories carry lesson but no individual lesson/chapter was found to be available 

in any books. 
• Also, illustration is not that much attractive. 

Major Findings
The summarized findings from all the sources provide the following points in general;

• There is still a gap in understanding the ethical knowledge as mostly found with 
‘speak the truth’. 

• Moreover, the lessons are practice oriented, that is to say, they require practice 
and provided as moral. 

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Bangladesh Bioethics Society 2010; 1(3):47-51

• Understanding of the guardians and the teachers contradicted in some issues on 
text books. 

• Most important,  the study finds that family members  care to the children is 
becoming less in learning/spreading ethical knowledge. 

Discussion: Mahatma Gandhi once said: “Education means all-round drawing out of 
the best in child and man – body, mind and spirit.”4 As such, education becomes the 
basis  of personality development  on all  dimensions  – moral,  mental  and emotional. 
Therefore, we all understand the need in the long run, education forms the foundations 
on which the castles of peace and prosperity can be built.

Since  ancient  times,  it  is  said  that  with education  we finally  attain  salvation.  This 
essentially contains the thought and essence of value education that is relevant in all 
perspectives. This very concept, when applied to the simple but refined approach to the 
children, these is sure to provide us with a new dimension of educational development, 
benefit of which will be immense in the future to come. As such, while analyzing the 
views expressed by the respondents in three categories, we can observe them under two 
main points:

- Educate teachers, students and guardians (particularly parents) to inform 
them of their rights, their obligations, like the standards of service to be 
expected of teachers or the duty to send children to school, and of who 
to turn to in case of perceived wrongdoing. 

- Since it is important to address issues relating to corruption and moral 
behaviour  during  the  formative  years,  measures  should  be  taken  to 
address this, and to aim at creating a cultural sensitivity to all sort of 
unethical activities from an early age. 

Conclusion: The  survey  found  that  ethical  knowledge  are  mostly  confined  to 
understanding ‘wrong and right’,  ‘always speak the truth’ etc. both for students and 
teacher’s perspective. The guardians also fall in this understanding and ensure practices 
at  home.  But,  it  is  understood that the level  of ethical  knowledge is a broad issue, 
practicing of which should be started at home with support from education materials 
and supported by the education  institutions.  Role of  teachers  in  this  regard is  very 
important to understand those lessons and focus on the need. 
Development and inclusion of proper knowledge of lessons and teaching materials is 
thus be sought by the teachers with comments from guardians so that an appropriate 
system can be introduced and run effectively for shaping the mind of the future leaders. 

References:
1. All text books of Class I – V, National Textbook and Curriculum Board (eg., Bangla, 
English, Sociology, Religion, General Mathematics etc.)

4Gandhi On Value Education, by Dr. Ravindra Kumar (Dr. Ravindra Kumar is a universally renowned 
Gandhian scholar, Indologist and writer. He is the Former Vice-Chancellor of University of Meerut.)

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Bangladesh Bioethics Society 2010; 1(3):47-51

2. [Draft] National Education Policy 2010, GoB. 
3.http://www.u4.no/helpdesk/helpdesk/queries/query25.c fm
4.‘Green signal to unified education system’, The Daily Star, June 1, 2010. 

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