ROBIUL CHOWDHURY

I am writing to express my interest to work with your esteemed organization. I am now working as a senior Examination and Evaluation specialist  in Bangladesh Examination Development Unit (BEDU)- a research unit for the development of assessment and examination system of education in Bangladesh. The focus areas of my job are to do research on the intended and achieved curriculum, data analysis, report writing, material development, planning, budgeting, training, coordination and teaching. Being the leader of a professional team, I give suggestions to the policy makers for enhancing the education system in Bangladesh along with the implementation plan.  Communicating the concerned ministries, authorities and development partners like World Bank, ADB etc. through emails, official letters, report writing, presentation and attending meeting is also the part of my job .

I lead a team of 12 specialists (as a part of my team building responsibility) with whom I have brought a qualitative change of assessment system in Bangladesh by reforming the public examinations in terms of designing more valid assessment tools (known as Creative Question System), ensuring marking reliability, developing new strategy to publish the result ensuring equity across subjects within the streams, across years and across different boards. Post-examination analysis dealing with a huge data set is also the part of my job which focuses on the question quality, marking accuracy and dearth of teaching-learning approaches. These reports are used by the respective boards and other concerned authorities for designing the policies and strategies on assessment and examination

Under my direct supervision a report on learning loss for secondary students during covid-19, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, is prepared and on the basis of the recommendations of the report, government and development partners are designing programs/projects to address the learning loss of secondary students. The activities include sampling of students and institutions, conducting workshops aiming to develop questionnaire for teachers and  test-items for students, administering an online test across Bangladesh, report writing for policy makers working in Education Ministry to design policies for effective implementation of the issues, National Curriculum and Text Book Board authorities to prepare academic guidelines to address the learning gaps of students, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education authorities to execute the recommendations made by the report, and report presentation to stakeholders.

I also administered a study on the effectiveness of learning of students through  assignment activities and virtual classes telecast through TV and on-line using different platforms during COVID-19. The activities included sampling of educational institutions, conducting workshops aiming to develop  questionnaire for teachers, students, head teachers, field level monitoring officers and guardians, collecting data using administrative support across Bangladesh, report writing and report presentation to stakeholders. 

I was also involved in conducting nation wide teachers' training programs on Creative Question (CQ) system- a new assessment system where items are designed focusing on assessing skills instead of rote learning and marks are given as per performance indicators. My job included planning, preparation of training manuals, budget, keeping liaison with different agencies and reporting to the executive agency, implementing agency and development partners. Under my direct supervision and coordination around 20000 master trainers  are trained  and with the help of those master trainers around 400000 nation wide classroom teachers were trained on  Question Setting, Moderation and Marking procedure. 

Besides, I carried out a pilot program with my team to introduce a new modality of continuous assessment which focused on ensuring learning of the students and reliable assessment using technology. This included planning, preparing manuals having performance indicators, designing architectural view of the apps by which we collected real time data  for an effective and reliable continuous assessment, keeping liaison with different agencies to run the pilot program, report writing and report presentation to stakeholders.

These programs on continuous assessment and introduction of  Creative Question system in Bangladesh impart an impact on developing new Competency-based curriculum going to be introduced in 2023.

Being the senior specialist and focal point of the co-implementing agency -Board of Intermediate and secondary Education (BISE) - I coordinate with Ministry of Education (MoE)-executive agency, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education-implementing agency along with other co-implementing agencies like National Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB), National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) and development partners to run the programs assigned on me and deal with revenue and development partner fund through the treasury system.

I was involved in developing National Curriculum Policy Framework and Curriculum-2012, Education Act Blended Education Policy in Bangladesh and manuals for foundation training of primary teachers. Besides, I am one of the members of different committees dealing with curriculum and assessment in primary and secondary education sector. I am also one of the writers of English Teachers’ Curriculum Guide for Secondary level.

I focused on gender and inclusive issues while preparing any documents like national curriculum policy framework, blended education policy, manuals for training along with inviting participants for training , assessment tools for the public examinations, reports etc.

 I have national and international publications (recent publication is  in the Routledge handbook of English Language Education in Bangladesh published by Routledge, UK   and the title of the paper is ‘An impact analysis of questions within the external examination on English language: Reflection on validity and Reliability, Part-3’) and articles published in the renowned English and Bangla daily newspapers in Bangladesh.  

I am a team building man having cooperative skill, critical thinking skill, problem solving skill, system thinking skill, aesthetic skill and life-long learning skill.  I am comfortable with Microsoft Word, Excel, e-mail correspondence and SPSS.

I think my 27 years experience in the field of teaching, research, data analysis, report writing, training, assessment, development of curriculum and training materials/manuals and leadership will be a driving force for any organization dealing with assessment and evaluation, research, data analysis, training, planning, report writing and document preparation.  

I am now working as a senior Examination and Evaluation specialist  in Bangladesh Examination Development Unit (BEDU)- a research unit for the development of assessment and examination system of education in Bangladesh. The focus areas of my job are to do research on the intended and achieved curriculum, data analysis, report writing, material development, planning, budgeting, training, coordination and teaching. Being the leader of a professional team, I give suggestions to the policy makers for enhancing the education system in Bangladesh along with the implementation plan.  Communicating the concerned ministries, authorities and development partners like World Bank, ADB etc. through emails, official letters, report writing, presentation and attending meeting is also the part of my job .

I lead a team of 12 specialists (as a part of my team building responsibility) with whom I have brought a qualitative change of assessment system in Bangladesh by reforming the public examinations in terms of designing more valid assessment tools (known as Creative Question System), ensuring marking reliability, developing new strategy to publish the result ensuring equity across subjects within the streams, across years and across different boards. Post-examination analysis dealing with a huge data set is also the part of my job which focuses on the question quality, marking accuracy and dearth of teaching-learning approaches. These reports are used by the respective boards and other concerned authorities for designing the policies and strategies on assessment and examination

Under my direct supervision a report on learning loss for secondary students during covid-19, the first of its kind in Bangladesh, is prepared and on the basis of the recommendations of the report, government and development partners are designing programs/projects to address the learning loss of secondary students. The activities include sampling of students and institutions, conducting workshops aiming to develop questionnaire for teachers and  test-items for students, administering an online test across Bangladesh, report writing for policy makers working in Education Ministry to design policies for effective implementation of the issues, National Curriculum and Text Book Board authorities to prepare academic guidelines to address the learning gaps of students, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education authorities to execute the recommendations made by the report, and report presentation to stakeholders.

I also administered a study on the effectiveness of learning of students through  assignment activities and virtual classes telecast through TV and on-line using different platforms during COVID-19. The activities included sampling of educational institutions, conducting workshops aiming to develop  questionnaire for teachers, students, head teachers, field level monitoring officers and guardians, collecting data using administrative support across Bangladesh, report writing and report presentation to stakeholders. 

I was also involved in conducting nation wide teachers' training programs on Creative Question (CQ) system- a new assessment system where items are designed focusing on assessing skills instead of rote learning and marks are given as per performance indicators. My job included planning, preparation of training manuals, budget, keeping liaison with different agencies and reporting to the executive agency, implementing agency and development partners. Under my direct supervision and coordination around 20000 master trainers  are trained  and with the help of those master trainers around 400000 nation wide classroom teachers were trained on  Question Setting, Moderation and Marking procedure. 

Besides, I carried out a pilot program with my team to introduce a new modality of continuous assessment which focused on ensuring learning of the students and reliable assessment using technology. This included planning, preparing manuals having performance indicators, designing architectural view of the apps by which we collected real time data  for an effective and reliable continuous assessment, keeping liaison with different agencies to run the pilot program, report writing and report presentation to stakeholders.

These programs on continuous assessment and introduction of  Creative Question system in Bangladesh impart an impact on developing new Competency-based curriculum going to be introduced in 2023.

Being the senior specialist and focal point of the co-implementing agency -Board of Intermediate and secondary Education (BISE) - I coordinate with Ministry of Education (MoE)-executive agency, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education-implementing agency along with other co-implementing agencies like National Curriculum and Text Book Board (NCTB), National Academy for Educational Management (NAEM) and development partners to run the programs assigned on me and deal with revenue and development partner fund through the treasury system.

I was involved in developing National Curriculum Policy Framework and Curriculum-2012, Education Act Blended Education Policy in Bangladesh and manuals for foundation training of primary teachers. Besides, I am one of the members of different committees dealing with curriculum and assessment in primary and secondary education sector. I am also one of the writers of English Teachers’ Curriculum Guide for Secondary level.

I focused on gender and inclusive issues while preparing any documents like national curriculum policy framework, blended education policy, manuals for training along with inviting participants for training , assessment tools for the public examinations, reports etc.

 I have national and international publications (recent publication is  in the Routledge handbook of English Language Education in Bangladesh published by Routledge, UK   and the title of the paper is ‘An impact analysis of questions within the external examination on English language: Reflection on validity and Reliability, Part-3’) and articles published in the renowned English and Bangla daily newspapers in Bangladesh.  

1. MA in English Literature, Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Bangladesh,1990
2. Six-month long program in School-Based Assessment (focusing on Assessment and Measurement), Melbourne University, Australia, May-October, 2003
3. A three-month long on-line course on Assessment of English Learners, an American English E-Teacher Program  of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI 360 and delivered by Northern Arizona University,  Winter 2017: January 17, 2017 – March 14, 2017.
4. A three-month long on-line course on Using Educational Technology in the English Language Classroom , an American English E-Teacher Program  of the U.S. Department of State administered by FHI 360 and delivered by IOWA state University,  Summer 2020: June 1, 2020 – September 7, 2020.