For every 100 university going students in the West Pakistan, Bangladesh (East Pakistan) had 247 university going students during the years of 1951-52. The West paid much more attention to their education and almost flipped the number within 14 years. During 1963-64, in the East we had only 9,984 students enrolled in Universities where as many as 14,425 students in the West Pakistan, which is 144 for each 100 from the East. In my personal opinion this institutional discrimination is more then enough reason for a separate independent Bangladesh. We are proud that we have Bangladesh.
Winter morning in Portland, I was enjoying “Collected works of Rehman Sobhah” published by Center for Policy Dialogue. I was intrigued by his article on Economic basis of Bangali Nation where he put a table of Pakistan Economic survey. I was 2 years old when people of Bangladesh said “Enough” and started claiming their self-governance and independence in a painstakingly hard way.
For every student in the East who experienced that his academic potential has been shunned due to the unequal treatment of the West to provide equal growth in the East, freedom fighting was like Jihad to him. We thank them from the bottom of our hearts today in the month of December. Today in Bangladesh we have as many as 50,000 students, enrolling each year in the Universities around the country. Thank you 1971.
We still have a long way to go for our higher education, both quality and capacity wise. According to BANBEIS data for 2001-2005, Bangladesh had a tremendous growth in private Universities. The number of such universities grew from 22 to 53 during that 5 year period almost 240% growth; however number of teachers serving those institutions grew from 2205 to 3487 to 154% in those 5 years. You can see, there is some disproportional relationship which may cause some quality issue. And after the inspection of University grant commission and other oversight committees’ survey, we all know now about the quality of education of these private Universities except few.
On the other hand after the inception of our beloved Bangladesh, the growth of the Public University is stunningly poor and almost flat. This is unacceptable. Our generation should at least setup one University in each district with equal infrastructure, staff, recourses and quality of education by now. Let us plan on doing that by the year 2021 at the half century of our nation. In today’s world higher education become more important then ever. In the advent of technological revolution on information technology and computing automation, Bangladesh has more reason to educate its massive population to transform them from liability to resources. We do not have natural resources; our people are our resources. In my opinion there is no alternative of easily accessible Broadband in order for a rapid mass level education.
I believe, it is high time for this generation to pay a close attention to the delivery methods and quality of education in Bangladesh. First and foremost our educators at the Universities have to acknowledge the true reality. Our Universities do not have any respectable position in any of the ranking done by any respected ranking authority around the world. We are no longer the Oxford of the East which once we claimed. However, we can turn it around, we just need to set our priorities and act on it.
If every student in both public and private Universities has easy access to internet, then they can browse the portal of any Universities around the world. They can get their syllabus, course material and could compare where they stand. This will put our educators in a challenging environment. Student will get exposed to the real world and demand no less. This will trigger hard work and competitive stings for a better outcome. There is one regulatory obstacle here, which is standing between students and information superhighway. We need an easily accessible if not free broadband available for every student.
There are 74 universities in Bangladesh. Out of these, 21 universities are in the public sector, while the other 53 are in the private sector. Out of 21 public sector universities, 19 universities provide regular classroom instruction facilities and services. Each of them may take initiatives to get grant and design their intranet as well as the gateway to internet. BTTB may just drop the extension of submarine cable and fiber to the nearest node. Again, government may impose a mandatory 5% revenue contribution from the entire telecom provider operating in Bangladesh including BTTB to fund such a connectivity project.No University will benefit from the online capability more than the National University of Bangladesh. The National University caters the general education at graduate and post-graduate level in colleges/institutions which were affiliated to different public universities since independence. About one million students are studying in more than 1600 colleges/institutions affiliated to this university. The National University is expanding in terms of number of students, courses and institutions day by day. To day this university plays the most significant role to provide opportunities for higher education among the students living especially in rural and semi-urban areas. A dedicated connectivity and access to the internet with a computer in students possession may do more then the education. The student will have the vision.How do we find the funding? I already discussed 5% telecom revenue for the connectivity solution. Let’s say, we need USD$ 40 million for 200,000 laptops (University Grant commission or ministry of education can strike a deal with ASUS Taipei or Lenovo China) which will ensure a piece for every university enrolled student of Bangladesh. June 2007, Intel and ASUS partnered to bring a US$199 laptop called “Eee PC” an inexpensive laptop designed to help spread computing to poorer regions. The hardware funding may come from various foundations and NGOs. Universities need to research for that. Again you need a dedicated internet access to even to search the funding. It is feels like the chicken and egg problem. There is a lot of funding available to close the digital divide.
BRAC or Grameen could take a lead on working out a micro credit loan with Universities for the funding of these PCs. Moreover, University governing body can work with various bank and financial agencies for a package of installment payable by each student in absence of funding from non profit organizations. A student may pay as low as 500 Taka per month for a laptop during his full length of study. I am sure, these creative students will innovate a lot of usages of these toys at their disposal for generating lot more then 500 Taka to pay for it. For this scheme we do not need any grant, we can work out with a bank for this venture.
There may be hundreds of other ways to improve quality of education; however my prescription to jump starts is the following equation:
The quality of higher education = land students to information superhighway + guidance of their professors.
Let us not under estimate our students, let them expose to the reality and truth. I am sure they will aim for higher standard. This will make our founding fathers happy in haven.
We are proud that we have Bangladesh – let’s take it to the next level. –Abu Abdullah
sohel1569@yahoo.com
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