The adaptability to education applies to the ability of students to educational system. To respond to the needs and adapt to different contexts is for the best interests of students.
There are multiple indicators that can be utilized to reflect the adaptability of schooling.
Adaptation supports a student to meet the expected outcomes of the curriculum.
Adaptation is specific to a student and responds to his/her identified needs. Adaptation means a change in the teaching process, materials, assignments or pupil products to
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assist a pupil to achieve the expected learning outcomes (Manitoba Education, n.d.). The ability of a child to integrate into a new environment depends on its shape, but how they develop patterns of adaptation is also important in the process. Leaving home and integrated into a new environment, with peer those who have never seen, with different rules to be learned and in a strange place, is not easy for a child to accommodate (Early Children Education, 2011). These factors may be shaped with the following major ideas as defined by Australian Institute of Family Studies (Rosier & McDonald, 2011):
Child characteristics: Characteristics such as a child’s temperament, IQ, personality, social skills and cognitive ability all appear to influence their readiness for school;
Parental characteristics: Characteristics such as parental socio-economic status, relationship status, membership of a minority group, intelligence and psychopathology all contribute to the likelihood of their child being “ready” for school. Parenting practices and style, as well as attachment status, can also impact upon a child’s adaptation to these new environments; and
Community characteristics: the communities in which children live, the services available to them, the schools within their community and the relationships between these and the families in which children grow up all impact upon their readiness for school.
Basically, a comprehensive perspective of school adaptation considers the child, family and school and centers on various factors such as cognitive development, socialization the cultural and political milieu, and family and teacher expectations. But it is argued for the role of a home-school mediator, i.e.; teacher, as a facilitator of children’s adaptation to school (Brizuela & Garcia-Sellers, 1999).
UCEP students grow up in a different socio-economic condition and for this reason their adaptation with school belong different reasons. It is more different from other students in case of UCEP students. Underprivileged children’s education and creating a better future for those poor children are UCEP’s main objective. From this point of view, it is important to know the opinion of students about the adaptability level with UCEP itself.
The structure or organization of a school community greatly affects the way students and teachers feel about the time they spend at school (Hamre & Pianta, n.d.). Here it is
found that 33.3 percent students opinion was ‘very good’ in response to adaptability with UCEP school. On the other hand, 43 percent responded as ‘good’ and about 24 percent responded as ‘fair’ adaptability with UCEP school. From the following data it is clear that about all of the students had positive opinion towards UCEP school, which led them to build better future (Table: 5.1).
Table 5.1
Adaptation of UCEP Students with School
Opinion No. of respondents Percentage
Very good 100 33.3
good 129 43.0
Fair 71 23.7
Total 300 100.0
5.2.1 Adaptation with UCEP School by Type of Family of the Students
There are so many reasons and factors behind the adaptability with school. But there are three important dimensions involved in the process of school adaptation: child, family, and school. A family group residing in a bari functions as the basic unit of economic endeavor, landholding, and social identity. A bari might consist of one or more such functional households, depending on the circumstances of family relationship. Married sons generally live in their parents' household during the father's lifetime. Although sons usually build separate houses for their nuclear families, they remain under their fathers' authority, and wives under their mothers-in-law's authority. The death of the father usually precipitates the separation of adult brothers into their own households. Such a split generally causes little change in the physical layout of the bari, however. Families at different stages of the cycle display different configurations of household membership.
Patrilineal ties dominate the ideology of family life, but in practice matrilineal ties are almost as important. Basically, Bangladeshi families may be divided into unique family, joint family and mixed type of family. But today, joint families are splitting rapidly with the advancement of time. The partitioning of a joint family depends on a variety of factors: economic condition of household; size of living space; authority and control of the patriarch or other elderly persons in the household (Khuda, 1985).
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Students of rural and urban areas, specifically children from disadvantaged group of society, suffer an ‘adaption depression’. There are might be number of reasons behind this. In some cases, it might be the teacher's strategies that play important role on the child's school adaptation (Brizuela & Garcia-Sellers, 1999). For parents, beginning school symbolizes a child’s ability to function independently (Davies, 2011). Parents or family members may be concerned about child’s ability to adjust to starting school, in particular behavioral difficulties, academic skills and their ability to get along with peers and follow instructions. Parental expectations of their child may also increase in the areas of achievement and behavior. Some parents having a child with disability or experiencing chronic poverty/unemployment are worried about their children who need support at school (Dockett, Kearney, Hampshire, Mason, & Schmied, 2011). A key aspect of successful transition into school is the active and positive involvement of families in the home, early childhood and school settings. Schools can facilitate this process by developing positive relationships with families before school starts, and during and after the transition period. In this process type of family also plays important role. Parental attitudes towards school can also have a strong impact on the child’s transition to school.
If the parent is encouraging and positive the child is likely to enter school more confidently. If the parent is anxious or stressed the child may pick up on these feelings and become anxious, especially temperamentally shy children (Davies, 2011). Strong parent–school relationships may provide shared expectations and support for the child to do his/her best (Rosier & McDonald, 2011). Transition to school and achieving school readiness has been found to be more challenging for children in lower socio-economic circumstances. However type of family, parental characteristics such as maternal education and age, and the home environment appear to mediate the relationship between financial disadvantage and school adaptation (Smart, Sanson, Baxter, Edwards, & Hayes, 2008). Thus, the strongest argument is that type of family plays an important role in adaptation with school especially in case of underprivileged children. In Bangladesh, growing number of unitary family is found in the recent survey conducted by BBS. From the following table it is found that 29.33 percent students of unitary family had very good adaptation with curriculum, 32.33 percent students of unitary family had good adaptation and 17.66 percent had fair adaptation, i.e.; 79.33 percent students had acceptable adaptation with UCEP schools, those came from unitary family (Table 5.2).
Table 5.2
Adaptation with UCEP School by Type of Family Types of family Adaptation with UCEP school
Total
Very good good Fair
Unitary 88 (29.33) 97 (32.33) 53 (17.66) 238 (79.33)
Combined 12 (4.00) 32 (10.66) 18 (6.00) 62 (20.66)
Total 100 (33.33) 129 (43.00) 71 (23.66) 300 (100.00) Note: () indicates the percentage
5.2.2 Comparison between Understanding of Curriculum and Adaptation
In formal education, a curriculum is the planned interaction of pupils with instructional content, materials, resources, and processes for evaluating the attainment of educational objectives. Curriculum understanding or inclusion of curriculum by student is important for every institution. Children are taught on the basis of curriculum developed by each school or educational institutions for their students. Two types of adaptation with curriculum are found most important for the underprivileged children (Glat & Oliveira, n.d.). One is accessibility adaptation of the curriculum and other is pedagogical adaptation. It is found that student diversity exists in every classroom. Every instructional grouping is characterized by diversity of achievement, ability, interest, motivation and needs. For these reasons, adaptive dimension is important and through this teachers accommodate the individual differences of the members of the class (Saskatchewan Education, 1992). On the other hand, understanding the curriculum is also associated with the adaptation of school. The level of understanding the curriculum is divided into four groups based on reply of students. Students’ level of adaptation is arranged into three groups as well. From the following table it is found that 33.33 percent students had the highest level of adaptation with school and 43 percent students had ‘good’ adaptation with UCEP school. It is found that more than 60 percent students could understand their lessons easily. Among the total respondents, more than 25 percent respondents replied that they could understand their lessons easily who had very good adaptation, 17 percent students had fair understanding level who had good adaption with school. That is, understanding of lessons also played a very important role to adapt with school.
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Table 5.3
Comparison between Understanding of Curriculum and Adaptation with School Understanding of
Curriculum
Adaptation with UCEP school
Total
Very good good Fair
Easily Understood 76 (25.33) 73 (24.33) 32 (10.66) 181(60.33) Fairly Understood 21 (07.00) 51(17.00) 36 (12.00) 108 (36.00)
Difficult 1 (0.33) 4 (1.33) 3 (1.00) 8 (2.66)
Tough to Understand 2 (0.66) 1 (0.332) 0 3 (1.00)
Total 100(33.33) 129 (43.00) 71 (23.66) 300 (100.00)
Note: () indicates the percentage
5.2.3 Comparison between Type of Education and Adaptation
If we look from another point of view of the students adaptation by type of education then it would give us a different idea about the adaption of students with UCEP school.
In Bangladesh, there are a number of educational types exist as stated in the introduction chapter. Beyond the formal educational courses, there are different types of informal educational approaches for dropout and underprivileged children. A number of NGOs are working in informal educational sector along with government initiatives. UCEP gives vocational, general as well as integrated (both) education to its students. The vocational education and training provided by these ICT institutions aims to lay a foundation for the students’ continued personal and professional development and to prepare them for employment and/or further education (Information Services Department, 2014). As these children are from different socio-economic background, their adaptation with school and education type is developed in a unique way. Types of education, provided by UCEP are broadly divided into vocational, general and both categories. And respondents are also arranged into three stages.
Table no. 5.4 is a cross table between type of education and adaptation with UCEP school. Students were asked to answer on what types of education is provided by UCEP.
It was found that more than 58 percent students identified both types of education, 38 percent replied vocational education and about 3 percent replied general education was provided by UCEP. It is also found from the table that about 17 percent students of vocational curriculum and more than 15 percent of both category students had very
good adaptation with UCEP school. Another 26 percent students of both category and more than 15 percent students of vocational category had good adaptation level with UCEP school.
Table 5.4
Comparison between Types of Education and Adaptation with School Types of Education Adaptation with UCEP school
Total Very good good Fair
Vocational 50(16.66) 47(15.66) 17 (5.66) 114(38.00)
General 4 (1.33) 3 (1.00) 3 (1.00) 10 (3.33)
Both 46 (15.33) 79 (26.33) 51 (17.00) 176 (58.66)
Total 100(33.33) 129 (43.00) 71 (23.66) 300 (100.00)
Note: () indicates the percentage
From the above discussion, it is clear that type of family, type of education and understanding level of curriculum played an important role in adaptation with school.
UCEP follows its own style of education where classroom teaching is followed by practical works. It also tries best to facilitate with updated knowledge as well as harmonious learning environment to the students.
5.3 Teachers’ Opinion about Adaptation of Students with School