Following recent research which suggested that the mental health of students may be improved by discontinuing the use of the school bell Educate the World [UK] undertook a pilot in 10 schools in Bangladesh under the supervision of one of our volunteers Md Bayazid Khan who also works for the Education Department of the Bangladesh Government. His report on the pilot is below.
Piloting Districts : Tangail
& Sylhet
Number of Schools :
10 (Urban-09, Rural-01)
Students Information:
Class
|
Number of Students
|
Students with disabilities
|
Pre-Primary
|
366
|
02
|
One
|
492
|
02
|
Two
|
553
|
01
|
Three
|
561
|
03
|
Four
|
577
|
04
|
Five
|
612
|
02
|
Total
|
3161
|
14
|
Number of Teachers : 82 Male : 04 Female : 78
Steps taken to launch the
initiative:
- Meeting with teachers
- Without informing students functioning/operating bell was
suspended for 2-3 days
- Hanging class routine on classrooms’ wall
- Using hand watch/wall clock/mobile phone clock by teachers to
start and finish teaching-learning activities/lessons
Teachers’ Reaction:
- 80-85% teachers faced difficulties to finish the lesson as well
as enter into the next scheduled teaching-learning activities
- 70-75% schools faced disturbances to start & finish daily
assembly, to finish daily school activities and to maintain daily leisure time
Observations from teachers:
- It is
possible to run school activities smoothly having discontinued the school bell, but
it will take time for both teachers and students to adapt
- There should be a wall clock and a visible class routine with
timetable in each classroom
- In Bangladesh classrooms are overcrowded and both inside and outside
classrooms there is a lot of noise. So, it could be a challenge for both teachers and students to perform their responsibilities smoothly without a functioning bell as the sound of the bell is the heart of running school
activities.
- School bell is the tradition of schools in Bangladesh. So,
discontinuation of school bell may
loose schools’ tradition
- It will
dispel sound pollution that may strengthen students’ mental health
Observations from students:
- Students were curious to know the reason of not ringing bell
- Students didn’t face any difficulties as they followed teachers’ commands
Number of students who gladly accepted
the initiative: 105
Reasons for accepting: Appreciating the new approach
Number of students who had no comments
on the initiative: 3056
Parents’ Reaction:
90-95% parents are against discontinuing the school bell as they think that the functioning of school bell means the school is
running smoothly and teachers are performing their duties. They feel that there
are sounds and noises everywhere at schools. So, the school bell is crucially
important for the running of the school's activities.
Author's observations:
In our culture we have tendency of not
appreciating any change to or to accept it at first, but after few days of commencement,
we gladly accept the change. Although teachers admitted that the initiative did have a positive impact on development of students’ mental health, the challenges of managing
larger number of students in a noisy environment they meant they declined to accept the
change for the time being.
