Vocational and technical education
Technical education
will help many ambitious young men to develop essential skills that
are highly valued in
the global marketplace. It will lift themselves
and their families
out of poverty
According to a report published in this newspaper on Saturday, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has said that a technical school would be set up in each upazila with a view to expanding technical and vocational education throughout the country. The process has already started in 100 upazilas and another projects is about to start to set up such schools in other 389 upazilas. This indeed is a positive move on part of the government.
Technical and vocational education and training lays emphasis on training for a specific career or trade. The training is mainly related to manual or practical professions and mostly does not involve theoretical and academic skills. Earlier, vocational training was only used for specific occupations, mostly the activities of the lower social classes which mainly required manual skills and the use of machinery. However, since the end of the twentieth century, trades such as retail, management, information and technology, fashion and tourism have also witnessed a boom.
There is huge room for expansion in technical education. Unemployment and under-employment are two of the most serious problems being faced by businesses in many countries, including Bangladesh, and are becoming the obstacles in the path of economic development. One of the main causes of unemployment is the lack of skilled people or people with the required expertise. The majority of school dropouts continue to go to waste with no future for them. These youths become vagabonds, do petty jobs or get lured into the world of crime.
Technical education will be of great help to potential Bangladeshi workers choosing to work abroad. Wages rise considerably if the worker is technically equipped. This sort of education is not only inexpensive but will yield a definite dividend. Technical education will help many ambitious young men to develop essential skills that are highly valued in the global marketplace. It will lift themselves and their families out of poverty. It will make them not just useful and productive citizens but enhance economic development in the areas they came from.
The point also has to be made that technical and vocational education and training alone by itself does not lead to rapid industrialization, or provision of jobs or eradication of poverty. Good government policies do all three. National governments, therefore, need to create an economic environment that promotes the growth of enterprises and generally stimulates the economy.
