Badly needed: A worthwhile plan for education

Education is no more looked at as independent from a country’s economic or developmental goals nowadays. Rather, it is recognized as the single most important factor in promoting economic growth and development through the creation of human resources. Thus,  south east Asian countries like Japan  and South Korea could achieve very remarkable progress in building economic prosperity for their people in a relatively short period of time in the last century by developing their human resources from implementation  of appropriate educational policies. Government after government in Bangladesh  claimed that they followed a similar path of using education  as the means to  attaining economic progress. But the claims have proved to be hollow in the backdrop of the prevailing education systems in the country which are far from making the best use of resources being poured into the education sector.  
The frequent advocacy is noted  from some quarters that the  present education budget should be at a higher level to realise different objectives in the education sector. According to recent media reports, the incumbent government is about to tread the familiar path of substantially increasing budgetary allocations for the education sector. No doubt, after the presentation of the national budget for the coming fiscal year, the greater allocations for education would be justified as government’s  enlightened policy to hasten economic growth through increased spending on education. But consensus expert opinion in the country  is that it would be a great waste to pump in  more and more  resources into the education sector till it can be  proved that the same will be actually well spent.
A complete overhaul of the education system is very necessary. The present system produces mainly literate or generalists.  They are of no use for the country's developmental or economic needs.
The thrust right from the primary to secondary and higher secondary stages should be on need based education.  Agricultural, vocational, scientific, technical and managerial education should form important components of syllabuses progressively throughout these stages. Sea changes will have to be achieved in the field of teachers' training, recasting of syllabuses and other related matters.
Substantial investments are required to build specialised educational or training institutions to create diverse human resources in fields such as leather technology, fashion designing, marine technology, agro-products processing, information technology, seafood processing, modern farming, etc. Investments in these specialized and sector based  educational institutions can have the most effect in  taking care of the supply sides requirements to expedite economic growth.
Primary education is presently using up a lion's share of the education budget.  While this emphasis may continue, very urgent steps need to be taken to invest much greater resources on technical education.
The number  of  engineering universities, colleges,  technical institutes, polytechnics, etc., must be  rapidly increased in the coming years so that education can become real life oriented and can create  adequate human resources to work as catalysts for the aspired economic growth.
Greater public sector investments in technical and higher education is also necessary because the majority of the pupils are in no position to afford such education at home or abroad. Only greater public sector resources going into these forms of education, even at the cost of government subsidies, should produce the highly beneficial long term effect of creating a growing pool of technically able manpower in the country for  engaging in various tasks to expand the economy.
For a country of  over 160 million people, Bangladesh has only a few  universities of engineering and technology worth the name. But it has thousands of so called religious academic institutions  to produce religious persons and prayer leaders. There is nothing wrong in religious pursuits. Morality is also considered as an indispensable ingredient of development. But that morality can be taught also compulsorily to pupils of all faiths at primary and secondary schools with good effect. There is no need to proliferate endlessly exclusive religious academic institutions to attain this goal.
    
The writer is a journalist and contributor to The Independent

 

Badly needed: A worthwhile plan for education

Education is no more looked at as independent from a countrys economic or developmental goals nowadays. Rather, it is recognized as the single most important factor in promoting economic growth and development through the creation of human resources. Thus, south east Asian countries like Japan and South Korea could achieve very remarkable progress in building economic prosperity for their people in a relatively short period of time in the last century by developing their human resources from implementation of appropriate educational policies. Government after government in Bangladesh claimed that they followed a similar path of using education as the means to attaining economic progress. But the claims have proved to be hollow in the backdrop of the prevailing education systems in the country which are far from making the best use of resources being poured into the education sector. The frequent advocacy is noted from some quarters that the present education budget should be at a higher level to realise different objectives in the education sector. According to recent media reports, the incumbent government is about to tread the familiar path of substantially increasing budgetary allocations for the education sector. No doubt, after the presentation of the national budget for the coming fiscal year, the greater allocations for education would be justified as governments enlightened policy to hasten economic growth through increased spending on education. But consensus expert opinion in the country is that it would be a great waste to pump in more and more resources into the education sector till it can be proved that the same will be actually well spent. A complete overhaul of the education system is very necessary. The present system produces mainly literate or generalists. They are of no use for the countrys developmental or economic needs. The thrust right from the primary to secondary and higher secondary stages should be on need based education. Agricultural, vocational, scientific, technical and managerial education should form important components of syllabuses progressively throughout these stages. Sea changes will have to be achieved in the field of teachers training, recasting of syllabuses and other related matters. Substantial investments are required to build specialised educational or training institutions to create diverse human resources in fields such as leather technology, fashion designing, marine technology, agro-products processing, information technology, seafood processing, modern farming, etc. Investments in these specialized and sector based educational institutions can have the most effect in taking care of the supply sides requirements to expedite economic growth. Primary education is presently using up a lions share of the education budget. While this emphasis may continue, very urgent steps need to be taken to invest much greater resources on technical education. The number of engineering universities, colleges, technical institutes, polytechnics, etc., must be rapidly increased in the coming years so that education can become real life oriented and can create adequate human resources to work as catalysts for the aspired economic growth. Greater public sector investments in technical and higher education is also necessary because the majority of the pupils are in no position to afford such education at home or abroad. Only greater public sector resources going into these forms of education, even at the cost of government subsidies, should produce the highly beneficial long term effect of creating a growing pool of technically able manpower in the country for engaging in various tasks to expand the economy. For a country of over 160 million people, Bangladesh has only a few universities of engineering and technology worth the name. But it has thousands of so called religious academic institutions to produce religious persons and prayer leaders. There is nothing wrong in religious pursuits. Morality is also considered as an indispensable ingredient of development. But that morality can be taught also compulsorily to pupils of all faiths at primary and secondary schools with good effect. There is no need to proliferate endlessly exclusive religious academic institutions to attain this goal. The writer is a journalist and contributor to The Independent