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Bangladesh (孟加拉)is an agricultural country between India and Burma. Storms from the Indian Ocean sweep across the country every year, and large areas of farming land are flooded(冲毁). The people are very poor.
Fewer than half of the country's children complete their primary education. When they are six or seven years old, many children leave school to work in the fields or at home. The rest of their "education" consists of looking after cattle, collecting firewood or doing household jobs.
Not long ago, an experimental school was opened near the capital, Dacca, to help poor children. There are only 120 children in the school, which has three classrooms. In each class, forty pupils are divided into four groups of ten. Each pupil is free to decide which group he or she wants to join.
The most able pupils do a great deal of the teaching. They act as group monitors. Their duty is to ensure that all pupils in their group understand and practice what the teacher has taught.
There are a number of unusual features in the Bangladesh school. Children do not move up a class automatically when they grow older. Each group is promoted (升级)only when EVERY pupil in it has succeeded in getting to the right standard. As a result, all members of a group work hard to help the less able pupils. Nobody is left behind.
Lessons are extremely practical and include work on farming, carpentry, health and running a home, as well as lessons on the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. At school, pupils prepare for adult life by learning to carry out almost all the tasks which they will face when they grow older.
If pupils have to look after cattle or young children, they are allowed to bring them to school. If a child has to stay at home to help his parents, there is noscolding or punishment(责罚) at school. Children enjoy their lessons and the school is cheap to run. It is so successful that other schools in Bangladesh are beginning to imitate (模仿) its methods. Visitors are even coming from other agricultural countries to see if they can use a similar method.
