Mentoring can lead pupils to holistic learning

· To develop leadership potential among the students.

· To encourage students to attend school more regularly and be more attentive and proactive in the class

· To ensure participation in all school examinations

· To instill the value of helping other students in their studies and to instill values consisted with civic responsibility

· To develop interest and involvement in co-curricular activities, especially in debating and creative writing

· To make the classroom environment learner-centered and student friendly

· To develop a demand for quality education among students

In response to global initiatives propelled by the Millennium Development Goals and Education for All, Bangladesh has made significant improvements in ensuring access to and equity in education but high dropout rates threaten to confine the positive benefits. According to a recent baseline survey on prairie education the dropout rate for both boys and girls increased from 33% in 2002 to 47% in 2006.

This can be attributed to classroom setting. Consequently, even though children in Bangladesh are increasingly attending school, most of the students remain functionally illiterate and perform poorly in exams. Since the education they receive does not hold the promise of relevance nor academic profess, student drops out in large numbers.

As a result there has been a growing realization that, in addition to ensuring universal access to education, the features of a quality education are established in educational literature and policy circle. Education should focus on broadening a student’s knowledge base, in addition to developing the following higher -order cognitive skills: advanced literacy, creative expression, communication, collaboration, logical reasoning, critical analysis, and leadership, problem solving and responsible citizenship. In order to maximize the focus on advanced cognitive skills as a gateway to quality, it is evident that efforts are needed to enhance the classroom environment in ways that promotes student participation and interaction.

Mentoring Program, a model innovation to engage students in their own learning and thus sue the interest generated from a learner-centered approach as a platform to promote higher ordered thing and learning can be introduced in the secondary level. A chief benefit of the participatory approach to education is the attentiveness that accompanies a student active participation in the learning process.

It is widely known that a lecture-based curriculum that tries heavily on memorization of the student. In many cases, irrelevant and mundane classroom environment can explain high dropout rates.

The mentoring Program may foster concentration by allowing students to engage in co-curricular activities that they find enjoyable.

For example, many students enjoy the mental rejuvenation that is offered by singing, dancing and sports which can allow them to maintain the focus and concentration necessary for purposeful learning.

Co-curricular activities are done for physical, behavioral, and intellectual development of the students and to foster an environment of joyful learning.

One of the key tenets of Mentoring Programs is its endorsement of the participatory approach to education. It is well documented that the conventional ‘banking approach’ to education in which the teacher transmit knowledge to the passive student, is ineffective of unleashing educations potential to prepare students successfully for the future. But Mentoring Program will encourage students’ empowerment by teaching students to become active participants in their classrooms.

Specially, mentoring promotes leadership and responsible citizenship by giving Mentors the tools to improve classroom attendance, attentiveness, participation, academic performance and discipline.

Although the focus of mentoring approach is on enhancing student encouragement in the classroom, the teacher is an integral part in strengthening the teacher-student interaction in ways that enhance learning. Namely, by facilitating a collaborative partnership with students, teachers are trained to mentor and guide students to become active.

Creativity is an important skill to develop in the classroom. As Albert Einstein famously postulated, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Unfortunately, students that are products of educational systems in many Asian countries demonstrate an acute scarcity in the ability to think creatively.

Since the future of a nation hinges on its ability to prepare students to become conceptual thinkers, students must be encouraged to use their imagination. Here mentoring can be used as a successful vehicle to promote the creativity of the learners.

The Ministry of Education and the GO and NGO cooperation can take a leading and pragmatic role to introduce mentoring activities in all secondary educational institutions.

(Programme Manager: BRAC Education Programme Email: [email protected] )