The big size population is not a problem when they are human resources equipped with skills and knowledge. And one of the major aims of the education system is to develop human resources so that humans do not become a burden for a country.
And that is why the education system is the most indispensable component of national development strategy. Any lacking of the system will contribute to lagging behind in development race.
Overall education system:
Our education system is producing hundreds, thousands of Masters Degree holders every year. In spite of this, it is surprising that still we are slowcoach in many development areas and we hire foreigners for the top positions of the big companies. So the question arises – if our graduates are not productive enough.
A British Council sponsored report prepared by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on graduate unemployment in South Asia published earlier of 2015 estimated that 47% of the graduates are unemployed in Bangladesh. Though the percentage was questioned by Mr. M. Niaz Asadullah, Professor of Development Economics at Malaya University, still it is a matter of worries even if the percentage is half of what it says. It throws the question, “Are we just distributing pieces of paper certificates instead of producing human resources?” If so what is the use of these ‘so called’ degrees?
We have prepared a not-written rule that everyone should go for general education and only the bad students will go for vocational-technical education. The students really do not like to go for vocational-technical education until and unless they lose all chances of general education.
There is no motivation for them to study in vocational-technical institutes! If we could facilitate and promote vocational-technical education in our country, there is immense scope for their employment in productive sectors.
Primary/Secondary level education:
Primary level of education is the foundation or base of education. That is why primary level teachers should be most qualified ones with high teaching-mentoring capability and skills. In reality what we see is a bit opposite to the standard situation. Though primary school teachers are given training but implementation of the training learning outcome is not up to the mark. The classroom teaching methodology is backdated and does not fit with child psychology.
Our primary level text books are well designed but their proper utilisation in many cases becomes less possible due to the lack of proper understanding of the teachers. Encouragement of memorising and selective studies is still prevailing in the system, which are not helping the students develop their mental and creative faculty.
The students are taught English Language for staggering twelve years. But still most of the university students cannot speak in English fluently and their writing skills are also not up to mark. The fault lies with the teaching methodology and lack of skills of the primary/secondary level teachers.
Now let us talk about practical lessons, the most important ingredient of education, which is totally ignored in our primary level. Though we have some practical parts at SSC and HSC levels in Science Group, the reality is that these parts are given the least care both by the teachers and the students. In many schools/colleges, practical classes conducted are very few in numbers. It means the practical education exists by name at SSC and HSC levels.
Higher Education:
Time is asset. In spite of knowing this stark truth, public universities are not sincere enough to eliminate session jam. These universities are liable for wasting the valuable time of the students. If authorities concerned act sincerely and responsibly, there is no reasons for continuing session jam. We cannot deny the fact that this is going to be tough for various logical reasons to solve the plight of this session jam but it does not mean that it is impossible. At first thought, it might seem that the loss is only for the students. Not really, this is a national loss; they are being added to the economy as productive forces at late hours.
Most of our academic curriculum is outdated which is not able to produce skilled manpower. Let’s talk about some professional programmes e.g. BBA, MBA, BBS, or MBS. There are very few universities which follow the required teaching methodology (case study, field visit etc.) for such kind of professional programmes. The rest of the universities provide ‘notes’ and then the students vomit the ‘notes’ on the exam sheets. There seems no connection of education with real life. Sometimes we notice advertisements in the stationary (computer compose/printing) outlets situated in the campus saying ‘BBA, MBA internship and term paper reports are available here.’ What is this? Is this a business of readymade reports! Students buy the reports and submit these reports to their course coordinators for gaining numbers and they get it. Also they get a degree, a piece of paper!
Student assessment issues:
If we talk about assessment of the students, the word exam comes very instantly in our context. We really need to review the assessment method to understand how scientific the method is. Though recently we have introduced “Creative Questions” in primary/secondary levels, still there are some issues in effective implementation of the method. But again only written exams cannot be a sole assessment tool.
Even in higher education level, ‘cramming and vomiting’ assessment is prevailing. We see that there are some common questions which appear in question papers by turns and a list of questions are given to the students as suggestions beforehand. All that a student needs to do is writing pages after pages to ensure good score. It is seen, the scorer counts pages for scoring in many cases without considering the quality of the write-up. This is a clear dodge!
The objective of assessment is to assess the knowledge, skill level and attitudes the students have gained through out a specific course completed by them. If it is just ‘cramming and vomiting’ assessment how possibly could we measure their knowledge, skill level and desired attitude?
Education and job field:
There is a clear lack of coordination between education sector and job field. Education sector doesn’t know what the demand of the market is and what the supply is. Even if they know, they do not have any considerations for the status quo to develop or modify their programmes. Because of this ignorance, many graduates do not find jobs to their match. Sometimes they are bound to join a job which is least relevant to them e.g. a physics graduate is working for a Bank. The reason behind this could be either the less quality of the degree or the mismatch of education and the demand of the job market.
We have more than 160 million people in our country. If we can ensure quality education through an up-to-date scientific and employment-oriented education system with highly skilled teachers at every level, this massive population will be a great resource for the country. This productive population will accelerate the development of the country and simultaneously we will head towards a self-sustaining and economically independent country. The government is working for the development of the system but we would request the government to go to the depth of the situation through some in-depth interviews with prominent educationists, teachers, development economists, employers, meritorious students and guardians to strive for excellence. For the development of the country, reformation and good governance of the education system is the go of the day!
The article was published on The Daily Sun on June 11, 2017
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