Struggle to get a seat in a university is on. Hundreds of thousands of students who recently passed their HSC or equivalent examinations will be trying their luck for admission first in public universities and those who will not succeed will try their luck in private universities or colleges. Though the education in public universities is practically subsidised, education in private universities is costly as these universities have to bear all the cost of providing education to those who seek it. Some private universities will deceive hundreds of students in the name of providing education, as they neither have the infrastructure nor qualified faculty members. On an average for every seat available in the public universities there will be 40 candidates this year. In some good private universities the ratio is the same. The total number of students who will vie for a seat in the tertiary level education will be around seven hundred thousand. Many of the students who will be successful in getting a seat in public universities will not be in the disciplines they originally planned to study in. They will just have to be satisfied with a seat, not necessarily of their choice of discipline.
Private universities, as expected, are market driven and may not offer courses which will not be attractive to admission seekers as the graduating out from these courses may not shape a graduate to get a good job. None of the private universities offer courses in basic science, barring a handful, the study of liberal arts is absent in most of universities, both in the public and private universities. In modern world, irrespective of which programme a student is admitted everyone has to take requisite number of courses in liberal arts. That makes a graduate more competitive in the job market. Unlike other years this year the public university teachers are divided on conducting admission tests because of their discontent about the newly announced pay-scale and their position being scaled down. The government has formed a committee to look into the matter and the Education Minister has announced on number of times that he is optimistic about resolving the issue. However, all public university teachers are not convinced.
The big question is should everyone who passes HSC and equivalent examinations enter general degree programmes, either in the universities or colleges? According to a report published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) recently about 26.1 percent of graduates remain unemployed in Bangladesh. The other side of the story is that when Bangladeshi graduates remain unemployed officially about forty thousand foreigners are validly working in Bangladesh, mostly in mid-level executive positions in different sectors. Unofficially this number may go up-to one hundred thousand. In simple terms the vast numbers of graduates who remain unemployed generally do not have the basic employable skills. These skills would include computer literacy, communication skills and analytical skills. A student passing with a MBA degree is often found working for a bank as a credit card salesman with meagre salary of eight to ten thousand taka. A driver in Dhaka or Chittagong earns approximately twelve to fifteen thousand taka per month, and that too without any formal education. Being an entrepreneur for most graduates is unthinkable.
Recently in India graduates, postgraduates and even PhD holders were among 23 lakh applicants who responded to an advertisement seeking applications for 368 posts of peons in UP government secretariat. In 1972, seven PhD holders were detected in India working as train guards. The actual number could even be more. Though India is a rising economic power, when it comes to providing education that will make a graduate employable, it has not gone very far. Other countries of the SAARC region suffer from similar problem with the exception of Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka focuses more on skill development then providing just simple university degrees.
Recently, I, along with the Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, was in Finland on a study visit to find out about the education system in that country. Finland is situated nearest to the North Pole with a population of only five million. It does not have much of resource and not much about Finland is known to the people of Bangladesh. Nurul Islam Nahid is the first minister from Bangladesh to have ever visited Finland. Finland has the world’s best primary and secondary education system and the country recognises that the years that a student spends in primary and secondary level are his formative years and that is when a student should acquire the skills that will make him employable. Finland does not have any education board, the schools are known as comprehensive schools where there are innumerable programmes for skill development. Each school administers its own examination up-to eighth grade and if someone wants to continue his or her study further he or she may sit for ‘O’ or ‘A’ level exams and their number are negligible. A university degree is needed only for those who want to teach at primary level or enter into the government bureaucracy. There are some professional institutions for teaching medicine, architecture and engineering. The number of jobs in government bureaucracy is very limited.
Most of the European governments are more interested to hire doctors or engineers or other professionals from other countries. More than thirty percent of doctors in US are from India. Nursing in most hospitals in US, EU countries or even in the Arab World are monopoly of India, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Unfortunately Bangladesh never paid attention to such skill development education or programmes. In Finland after one passes the eighth grade exam a student may decide to become a lorry driver, a motor mechanic, or a furniture designer. There are opportunities in schools to train software designers or IT engineers. One does not have to go to a university to learn these skills. Finland and most of the European education system focuses their attention on skill development rather than simply giving a certificate oriented education. Most of the certificate oriented education seekers would be foreigners, Bangladesh included. Observing all these Nurul Islam Nahid made a remark saying that our young people are more interested in sitting on chairs rather than making or designing one. He could not be far from the truth.
Coming back to Bangladesh – currently about 55 million students are in different level of education in Bangladesh of which three million are in the tertiary level. Bangladesh has brought about a revolution in putting young Bangladeshis in its education system. However, only 9 per cent of all post HSC level students are in the technical or vocational level education. As observed by ILO, the current education system creates un-employable graduates in great number and this is a great national loss. One good thing the current government has done is to establish specialised universities like Maritime University, Digital University, Fashion Design University (BGMEA University), Medical University and quite a few science and technical universities. However some of these universities instead of focusing their attention on developing their on capacity for which they were established begin to focus their attention more on general degree programmes, like any other general university. The government needs to discourage such diversions. Bangladesh does not have much of natural resources. 65 percent of its population is below the age of 35. Its young population is its big resource provided they can be given the opportunity to develop their employability skills. For this, more attention should be given to promote vocational and technical education. The country need short and long term plan for doing this. First the good side of such skill development training and education should be promoted. A Bangladeshi unskilled labourer working in any Middle Eastern country earns one fourth what their compatriot from India or Indonesia earns just because they have the required skills that are in high demand, not only in Middle East but also in Europe or America. Bangladesh needs university graduates surely, but must decide the area where they will be needed and the skill they should acquire. All the universities, both in public and private sector should focus on skill development training and education. If the universities fail in doing so the number of unemployed graduates will keep on rising. The entire higher education system needs an overall re-haul and re-launch.
The writer is a researcher and commentator, Chairman UGC, Bangladesh
Published in: http://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/83808/Tertiary-level-education-in-Bangladesh-needs-relaunching
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