Letters to the editor
What type of education ?
A complete overhaul of the education system is very necessary. The present system in Bangladesh produces mainly literates or generalists or the ones having religious education in madrashas. They are of little 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 to these ends 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.
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 the above 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.
Samiul Haque
Dhanmondi, Dhaka
What matters is efficient utilization of resources
It should be obvious that what we very importantly need is not increased allocation of resources. The most important need is to ensure optimum or efficient utilisation of resources in each sector. It does not matter whatever the allocations for a sector if the same are not well utilised to create value or wealth.
Government spending have much increased . The higher levels of spending have been sustained considerably with risks by resorting to lending from the public and the banks. The debt servicing liabilities on these accounts are fast climbing which makes the issue of optimum returns from public sector spending all the more significant.
Strong criticisms have been voiced about higher sectoral allocations in the Bangladesh economy and the resultant poor sectoral performance. Education, in particular, is presently enjoying a lions share of the budget. But there are allegations that corruption, colossal in nature, is plaguing the education sector that makes added expenditures into it a largely ineffective drain of resources.
Similar allegations of corruption and misuse of resources are heard in relation to other sectors in varying degrees that underline that all governments in this country from now on will have to devise the ways and means of corruption free much better utilisation of the taxpayers money.
Shamim Ahmed
Gulshan, Dhaka
