Redesigning technical education

Syed Mansur Hashim | Published: November 19, 2024 20:59:26

The biggest demand that emerged out of the July uprising was the demand for jobs. For decades, the education system in this country has been blamed for producing graduates with sub-par skills. Indeed, this issue has been the subject matter of a survey carried out by the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) and there has been a strong recommendation for the "formation of a high-level committee to modernise and transform Bangladesh's technical education system, which is currently facing a lack of market-driven skill development."
Recently a report carried by a vernacular business daily claimed that billions of Taka had been sunk into so-called technical education by the Bureau of Manpower Employment & Training (BMET), the government body that is supposed to impart upskill training to workers for the foreign labour markets, but with no tangible result. In fact, quoting from the report that was published on October 26, 2034, "The Bureau of Manpower, Employment, and Training (BMET) is responsible for implementing the TTC project in 40 upazilas. Initially budgeted at BDT 13.31 billion, the project's timeline was extended to June 2022, raising costs to BDT 16.67 billion. Subsequently, the duration was extended by two years without increasing the budget. In the latest extension, the project was prolonged to June 2025, with costs estimated at BDT 15.87 billion."
The problem wasn't with budgetary allocation. Rather, it was with the design of the project and how it was implemented. Its data show that from July to September 2023, only 13,305 individuals received skill enhancement training across 39 TTCs. This is less than a third of the target. Another 153,000 job-seekers received Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO) training. Such high PDO training rate suggests individuals barely receive adequate skill training in their respective fields.
In this context, it makes sense to redesign the training model for workers. The fact that Bangladesh has for years seen a "jobless growth" has added salt to injury for the millions of young men and women who have graduated from technical and non-technical higher seats of learning, only to find that they are dubbed "not good enough". In many ways a deep frustration was responsible for the outburst of anger leading to the ouster of a political government that had been in power for 15 years.
The major obstacles that have been highlighted in the CPD report is that curricula are outdated. There is a severe lack of skilled trainers and there is little in the way of market-driven training. Significant resources had been spent on government-led initiatives that failed to deliver primarily due to not only a lack of accountability, but also having no idea on what is in demand by the private sector domestically or abroad. Corrective measures are in order. That a prospective student may spend Tk2.0 million and graduate from a leading private university and then be offered a Tk20,000 a month job is no longer acceptable.
The entire system has to be reevaluated for a new beginning. This is not rocket-science and it certainly will not require technical help from abroad to redesign curriculum that makes sense and can be equal to the market demands. What is required is the desire at the policy level to recognise the mess the education system is in and start rectifying on a war-footing, particularly, the technical education system. Set up collaborations with the industry and bring in foreign resources to get the programme going. Change laws to make it possible for foreign tie-ups and stop making excuses.
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