Modern classrooms require smarter planning

Digitising classrooms is essential as it prepares students for a modern society, personalises learning and streamlines school administration. So, we were delighted when we saw the news in an English daily about our government’s bold commitment to modernise primary and secondary classrooms. Installing interactive digital panels in 100,000 classrooms and embedding 2,100 ICT and AI labs is a visionary leap towards preparing the next generation for a technology-driven global economy. 
However, hardware alone does not educate a child. If our government actually wants the investment to translate into genuine academic progress, it must conduct rigorous planning and objective assessments of institutional readiness because without them, these state-of-the-art tools risk becoming high-tech dust collectors. 
Unfortunately, we have been there before. A decade ago, the ICT for Education Project was launched. Despite its noble intentions, the report reveals that 24 per cent of surveyed teachers were left with unusable laptops, and 56 per cent of teachers received training that did not prepare them to develop multimedia content. Furthermore, classrooms were provided with technology, but schools lacked an institutional ecosystem to sustain it. Thus, repeating these mistakes with a Tk21,900 crore budget is an error our nation cannot afford. 
The government must ensure that recipient schools and areas are genuinely ready for advanced infrastructure. Many rural schools still suffer from unreliable power grids; without stable power and localised IT support, modern infrastructure becomes useless. The government must ensure the pedagogical gap is minimised. When we decide to move from traditional blackboards to an AI Lab, it needs both a psychological and a professional shift. It is not enough to train teachers at a basic level of technology; they must be trained to weave digital tools into daily lesson plans. Teachers must receive continuous training and should be monitored by external evaluators. The government must also maintain a decentralised budget that will ensure the sustainability of equipment. Purchasing and installing modern technology is not enough; IT experts must be in the recipient schools to fix them. 
Our government can implement changes in phases, as this would provide an opportunity to identify bottlenecks. It is mandatory to digitise our classrooms, but for the substantial investment to bear fruit, our government must ensure that our technological ambition matches administrative precision. It is essential to have a smarter strategy to back up the smarter classrooms.