The country's technical and vocational education arena is marked by confusing and at times discouraging developments.
While the government leaders concerned do often harangue about the need for creating a large pool of technically qualified people and the signboards of numerous technical education centres shine along the city streets, the majority of the so-called technically qualified persons are finding it hard to secure employment.
The hapless state of technical education and its impact on the job market in Bangladesh has been highlighted in a recent report published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The report, titled, "Innovative Strategies in Technical and Vocational Education and Training for Accelerated Human Resource Development in South Asia: Bangladesh", says the technical and vocational education in Bangladesh has little relevance to the demands in the job market. The number of right kind of technical education centres is inadequate and the facilities and manpower available with the existing ones are also insufficient. Besides, the curriculum is not befitting to the market needs.
In fact, the country's technical education is in a rudderless state the way general education is. The latter is churning out thousands of 'educated' youths every year and only a fraction of them are finding employment.
The technical and vocational educational institutions are more or less outmoded as they are offering education in trades in which supply of manpower is already abundant. Besides, the quality of education imparted to students studying in those institutions is poor and has no relevance to the modern day demand for technical manpower.
For instance, there are many sectors of the economy, including the all-important apparel sector, that have been facing serious dearth of skilled manpower and the gap is being filled up by workers coming from neighbouring India and Sri Lanka in particular. These workers along with their compatriot management personnel remit to their home countries a substantial amount of funds. Such an outflow of funds from a country that has substantial dependence on remittance earning is not at all desirable.
The fact remains that it is not that difficult to produce locally the skilled hands that are in demand at home and some other manpower export destinations. But, unfortunately, neither the private sector nor the government has made an in-depth study on the issue to determine the skill development needs and facilities now available with the technical and vocational training institutes. The study will also help the government to know the weaknesses in technical and vocational education and take up remedial measures.
The government does have a good number of polytechnic institutes that have been producing diploma holders in different branches of engineering and the vocational institutions hundreds of low-grade technicians who have to compete with self-trained technical hands.
The situation with the private sector technical and vocational institutes is even worse. They do not have adequate number of qualified teachers and equipment. Nor do they impart any real-life training to their students. This is also true in the case of government-run technical and vocational institutions.
The government has time and again highlighted the need for producing manpower having necessary technical skill. But it has not been doing enough to that end.
However, allocation of increased resources to build a few more technical and vocational institutions will not bring about any change in the situation. Every year, those would be producing a few thousand more diploma or certificate holders who would crowd an over-saturated job market.
Given the importance of developing skilled manpower for both local and foreign job markets, the government should immediately constitute a manpower commission with competent people to help formulate a national manpower policy and suggest measures for its appropriate implementation.
However, the country's education policy needs to complement the manpower policy, if there is any. Unfortunately, the country does neither have an education policy nor a manpower policy. Adhocism reigns supreme in both the fields.
Volumes have been said and written about the country's education the output of which is said to be far short of the country's actual requirement as far as the quality is concerned. What is needed is market demand-driven education.
Enough time has been wasted already. The ministries of manpower and education need to take up the job of creating a large pool of efficient and qualified technical manpower that would meet the local demand and also leave a surplus for export.
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