Building Bangladesh's brains
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Nerun Yakub
EIGHT hundred and thirty-seven young enthusiasts from over a hundred primary, secondary and higher secondary institutions in Sylhet division joined the annual Math Olympiad on the misty morning of Tuesday, 12 January 2010. Sixty of them, in four groups, bagged the coveted prizes that clearly mark winners with the potential to compete in the great global event, again reassuring the despairing among us, that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel.
For Bangladesh does have dedicated people with sterling qualities, who have not abandoned their motherland and who have been putting in a great deal of thought and effort throughout the year, and throughout the country, to attract the young into enjoying mathematics, the language of the universe. They infuse these young people at the annual Olympiads with an infectious passion, with which quite a number of them are eventually able to take on the world.
'Build the brains young, to build a vibrant Bangladesh', should certainly be the pledge for every earnest nationalist. But does the kind of puerile politics ---- and poorer governance with all its attendant ills, that we seem destined to suffer ---- permit our latent talents any breathing-working-shining space here? Not quite. Which is why the migration of talent to more rewarding destinations continues.
Many blame this 'brain drain' to be ultimately affecting the overall quality of intellectual, political and economic life in Bangladesh. The vacuum thus created can only impoverish the nation further if measures are not taken to bring home the brains, so to say, at least by establishing vigorous connectivity between the intellectual and scientific communities at home and abroad. Physical presence of native experts may be desirable but not essential in today's virtual workplace. The migration of educated people from Bangladesh to richer pastures therefore need not mean we are losing out.
The South to North migration of talent may have been deplored in the 1960s and 70s when the steady flow of budding brains to the North was not being balanced by enough of the students returning to their home countries after completion of their education. It was thus seen as an exodus of the best minds from poor countries, leading to the coinage, 'brain-drain'. Third World theorists then regarded this phenomenon as a problem, and it entered the public discourse, with 'nationalists' and 'internationalists' passionately participating in the debate.
While internationalists (liberal capitalists) welcomed such migration as a normal part of the market, with talent magnetically being drawn towards work environments where they are better used and better paid, for the neo-Marxist nationalists it was a means to pauperise poor countries further. The latter view, that the exodus of educated people is a huge waste of national resources, seems to still hold sway among many intellectuals. But it needs no telling that in countries that are yet to provide people with world class education or enough qualified jobs for those returning from training abroad, its dividends are more than welcome. Apart from being a source of foreign currency, people who stay back can set up networks with peers in the home country, arrange technology transfers and provide the much needed stock of expertise to be drawn on if need be.
It may be mentioned here, that the activists currently campaigning for the protection and proper exploitation of Bangladesh's oil, gas and other resources with our own expertise ---- instead of giving a blank cheque to foreign companies and their agents ----- have been pleading for just that. According to them, we simply have to access the brainpower, and we could mobilise the finances, to explore, develop and use the resources the blocks are likely to yield, to build Bangladesh, first and foremost.
Consider how some that have long been affected by the brain drain, South East Asia, for example, have turned the perceived losses into their advantage. Their expatriate educated elites have become a mine of brainpower for them to tap. However, this did not happen on its own but was the result of well-thought-out policies applied consistently over several decades. Of course, that kind of long-term policy implementation calls also for a stable economic and political environment, a great deal of maturity and dedication on the part of decision makers, to rise above parochial party interests and stay steadfast in the 'national' interest. We have highly qualified people out there. We can harness their skills if we really mean to take the nation forward, with pride in our own resources.
EIGHT hundred and thirty-seven young enthusiasts from over a hundred primary, secondary and higher secondary institutions in Sylhet division joined the annual Math Olympiad on the misty morning of Tuesday, 12 January 2010. Sixty of them, in four groups, bagged the coveted prizes that clearly mark winners with the potential to compete in the great global event, again reassuring the despairing among us, that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel.
For Bangladesh does have dedicated people with sterling qualities, who have not abandoned their motherland and who have been putting in a great deal of thought and effort throughout the year, and throughout the country, to attract the young into enjoying mathematics, the language of the universe. They infuse these young people at the annual Olympiads with an infectious passion, with which quite a number of them are eventually able to take on the world.
'Build the brains young, to build a vibrant Bangladesh', should certainly be the pledge for every earnest nationalist. But does the kind of puerile politics ---- and poorer governance with all its attendant ills, that we seem destined to suffer ---- permit our latent talents any breathing-working-shining space here? Not quite. Which is why the migration of talent to more rewarding destinations continues.
Many blame this 'brain drain' to be ultimately affecting the overall quality of intellectual, political and economic life in Bangladesh. The vacuum thus created can only impoverish the nation further if measures are not taken to bring home the brains, so to say, at least by establishing vigorous connectivity between the intellectual and scientific communities at home and abroad. Physical presence of native experts may be desirable but not essential in today's virtual workplace. The migration of educated people from Bangladesh to richer pastures therefore need not mean we are losing out.
The South to North migration of talent may have been deplored in the 1960s and 70s when the steady flow of budding brains to the North was not being balanced by enough of the students returning to their home countries after completion of their education. It was thus seen as an exodus of the best minds from poor countries, leading to the coinage, 'brain-drain'. Third World theorists then regarded this phenomenon as a problem, and it entered the public discourse, with 'nationalists' and 'internationalists' passionately participating in the debate.
While internationalists (liberal capitalists) welcomed such migration as a normal part of the market, with talent magnetically being drawn towards work environments where they are better used and better paid, for the neo-Marxist nationalists it was a means to pauperise poor countries further. The latter view, that the exodus of educated people is a huge waste of national resources, seems to still hold sway among many intellectuals. But it needs no telling that in countries that are yet to provide people with world class education or enough qualified jobs for those returning from training abroad, its dividends are more than welcome. Apart from being a source of foreign currency, people who stay back can set up networks with peers in the home country, arrange technology transfers and provide the much needed stock of expertise to be drawn on if need be.
It may be mentioned here, that the activists currently campaigning for the protection and proper exploitation of Bangladesh's oil, gas and other resources with our own expertise ---- instead of giving a blank cheque to foreign companies and their agents ----- have been pleading for just that. According to them, we simply have to access the brainpower, and we could mobilise the finances, to explore, develop and use the resources the blocks are likely to yield, to build Bangladesh, first and foremost.
Consider how some that have long been affected by the brain drain, South East Asia, for example, have turned the perceived losses into their advantage. Their expatriate educated elites have become a mine of brainpower for them to tap. However, this did not happen on its own but was the result of well-thought-out policies applied consistently over several decades. Of course, that kind of long-term policy implementation calls also for a stable economic and political environment, a great deal of maturity and dedication on the part of decision makers, to rise above parochial party interests and stay steadfast in the 'national' interest. We have highly qualified people out there. We can harness their skills if we really mean to take the nation forward, with pride in our own resources.