Cheap labour needn't be so cheap
Saturday, 24 April 2010
Nerun Yakub
Bangladesh's future hinges on knowledge, not cheap labour, according to the executive chairman of the Board of Investment. So we would do well to move to knowledge-based, high-tech industrialization rather than sticking to a production system primarily based on low-cost labour, for ' low-skilled workers have lower productivity and the companies end up paying higher', the good man was quoted as saying during the concluding session of an investment conference in Dhaka recently.
It was reassuring, however, to find Professor Papanek of Boston University at the same conference, not dismissive at all about our teeming masses. In fact he was quite optimistic about Bangladesh being able to 'draw US $ 10 billion in foreign investments in a couple of years by exploiting its vast army of cheap labour.' This is not to say that our vast labour force needn't build its capacities to get out of the cheap-low-skilled-low-productivity trap, to benefit both itself and its exploiters.
The first thing towards that goal is for decision-makers to start valuing knowledge-based education, as opposed to somehow earning certificates that mean little. Begin by instituting proper, value-based primary, secondary and tertiary education, cleaning up the prominent seats of learning, weeding out intellectual corruption and mediocrity and restoring the original purpose and scope of our universities.
Knowledge is power, no doubt about it. Without 'world class' knowledge, keeping pace with the times would be impossible and we would be no better than herds to be managed in an increasingly intricate and globalised world. Consider what a former US Secretary of State predicted as early as 1970. A more 'controlled and directed society' would gradually appear, linked to science and technology. Obviously, this society would be dominated by an elite group with superior scientific know-how. He even predicted that 'this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behaviour and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Technical and scientific momentum would then feed on the situation it exploits.'
Those who are educationally privileged in this country ---- a tiny minority compared to the total population ---- therefore, need to keep their grey cells in good order so that they can, as opinion/decision/policy makers, understand the full implications of the above. It is not to be taken lightly in today's world, a world where people's consent can be manufactured and 'democracy' managed by the powers-that-be --- as documented by the MIT linguist-philosopher and critic of powerful governments, Noam Chomsky.
Not having enough knowledge and understanding of the 'possibilities' means remaining at the receiving end of all kinds of manipulations, tests and experiments that the 'elite' can conduct in a vast field like Bangladesh, with so many un-informed, innocent and 'cheap numbers' available. Isn't the scope for testing bio-chemical, electromagnetic, mind-altering, behaviour-controlling, indeed all kinds of interventions, limitless ?
This is why it is doubly important to un-learn the culture of merely going through the motions in so-called seats of higher learning, and acquiring degrees that have little to do with enlightenment or education. If the 'Digital Bangladesh' dream is to be more meaningful than just mechanical button pushing, it is imperative that the current mediocrity sweeping across most educational institutions is banished and supplanted with knowledge-based learning. A number of nationwide initiatives, such as world literature, math and science based competitions, taken by respected and right-thinking academicians, have been happily making amends. These deserve to be replicated so that the use of the brain's grey cells, so to say, would be re-activated in Bangladesh.
If one is to judge by the quality of politics and governance and all that thrives under that canopy, the thinking class seems to be a diminishing breed. The once glorious 'Oxford of the East' has been reduced to just a 'certificate shop' instead of a university in the real sense of the term. Many would not mince words and call it a theatre for tribalism and thuggery in the name of politics. While real education and research have been put on hold, degrees continue to be awarded but these are of no value anywhere else in the world. Not a single university in Bangladesh was mentioned in the 2009 Asian University Rankings, not even among the first 500. This index, prepared by a higher education consultancy, Thomson Reuters Foundation in the UK, shows that ten of the top universities were in China and Hong Kong while Bombay's pride, the Indian Institute of Technology, was ranked at number 30.
Decision-makers should look into the details and learn where we have been going wrong over the past decades. The South East Asian countries were at the same level as us in the 1960s when the then East Pakistan had pledged to invest on educating the population sustainably. Half a century on, things have gotten worse, not better. According to the TRF analysis Chinese science showed 'awe-inspiring' expansion since 1981 because of well thought out government investment at all levels, beginning from schools to postgraduate research. In addition, efficient flow of knowledge from basic science to commercial applications was assured and the government adopted a pragmatic approach to tapping the talents of non-resident Chinese resource persons. Expatriates were offered flexible packages which enabled them to make the most of both worlds ---- at home and in foreign lands. These win-win deals attracted brains back to their roots which have been identified as the main reasons behind China's scientific leap.
Bangladesh Science Academy could similarly bank on the pool of scientists that the country has at home and abroad to start a sustained movement to build the brainpower of Bangladesh. It is essential that the mindset for research and development be inculcated early in the young, with the kind of knowledge-based activity ---- from the bottom up ---- that could, in a few generations, begin to transform Bangladesh. There is no alternative to a knowledge-based education if we are to build a core of learned men and women who can serve both the country and other centres of excellence abroad. The poverty of the intellect must go.
Bangladesh's future hinges on knowledge, not cheap labour, according to the executive chairman of the Board of Investment. So we would do well to move to knowledge-based, high-tech industrialization rather than sticking to a production system primarily based on low-cost labour, for ' low-skilled workers have lower productivity and the companies end up paying higher', the good man was quoted as saying during the concluding session of an investment conference in Dhaka recently.
It was reassuring, however, to find Professor Papanek of Boston University at the same conference, not dismissive at all about our teeming masses. In fact he was quite optimistic about Bangladesh being able to 'draw US $ 10 billion in foreign investments in a couple of years by exploiting its vast army of cheap labour.' This is not to say that our vast labour force needn't build its capacities to get out of the cheap-low-skilled-low-productivity trap, to benefit both itself and its exploiters.
The first thing towards that goal is for decision-makers to start valuing knowledge-based education, as opposed to somehow earning certificates that mean little. Begin by instituting proper, value-based primary, secondary and tertiary education, cleaning up the prominent seats of learning, weeding out intellectual corruption and mediocrity and restoring the original purpose and scope of our universities.
Knowledge is power, no doubt about it. Without 'world class' knowledge, keeping pace with the times would be impossible and we would be no better than herds to be managed in an increasingly intricate and globalised world. Consider what a former US Secretary of State predicted as early as 1970. A more 'controlled and directed society' would gradually appear, linked to science and technology. Obviously, this society would be dominated by an elite group with superior scientific know-how. He even predicted that 'this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behaviour and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Technical and scientific momentum would then feed on the situation it exploits.'
Those who are educationally privileged in this country ---- a tiny minority compared to the total population ---- therefore, need to keep their grey cells in good order so that they can, as opinion/decision/policy makers, understand the full implications of the above. It is not to be taken lightly in today's world, a world where people's consent can be manufactured and 'democracy' managed by the powers-that-be --- as documented by the MIT linguist-philosopher and critic of powerful governments, Noam Chomsky.
Not having enough knowledge and understanding of the 'possibilities' means remaining at the receiving end of all kinds of manipulations, tests and experiments that the 'elite' can conduct in a vast field like Bangladesh, with so many un-informed, innocent and 'cheap numbers' available. Isn't the scope for testing bio-chemical, electromagnetic, mind-altering, behaviour-controlling, indeed all kinds of interventions, limitless ?
This is why it is doubly important to un-learn the culture of merely going through the motions in so-called seats of higher learning, and acquiring degrees that have little to do with enlightenment or education. If the 'Digital Bangladesh' dream is to be more meaningful than just mechanical button pushing, it is imperative that the current mediocrity sweeping across most educational institutions is banished and supplanted with knowledge-based learning. A number of nationwide initiatives, such as world literature, math and science based competitions, taken by respected and right-thinking academicians, have been happily making amends. These deserve to be replicated so that the use of the brain's grey cells, so to say, would be re-activated in Bangladesh.
If one is to judge by the quality of politics and governance and all that thrives under that canopy, the thinking class seems to be a diminishing breed. The once glorious 'Oxford of the East' has been reduced to just a 'certificate shop' instead of a university in the real sense of the term. Many would not mince words and call it a theatre for tribalism and thuggery in the name of politics. While real education and research have been put on hold, degrees continue to be awarded but these are of no value anywhere else in the world. Not a single university in Bangladesh was mentioned in the 2009 Asian University Rankings, not even among the first 500. This index, prepared by a higher education consultancy, Thomson Reuters Foundation in the UK, shows that ten of the top universities were in China and Hong Kong while Bombay's pride, the Indian Institute of Technology, was ranked at number 30.
Decision-makers should look into the details and learn where we have been going wrong over the past decades. The South East Asian countries were at the same level as us in the 1960s when the then East Pakistan had pledged to invest on educating the population sustainably. Half a century on, things have gotten worse, not better. According to the TRF analysis Chinese science showed 'awe-inspiring' expansion since 1981 because of well thought out government investment at all levels, beginning from schools to postgraduate research. In addition, efficient flow of knowledge from basic science to commercial applications was assured and the government adopted a pragmatic approach to tapping the talents of non-resident Chinese resource persons. Expatriates were offered flexible packages which enabled them to make the most of both worlds ---- at home and in foreign lands. These win-win deals attracted brains back to their roots which have been identified as the main reasons behind China's scientific leap.
Bangladesh Science Academy could similarly bank on the pool of scientists that the country has at home and abroad to start a sustained movement to build the brainpower of Bangladesh. It is essential that the mindset for research and development be inculcated early in the young, with the kind of knowledge-based activity ---- from the bottom up ---- that could, in a few generations, begin to transform Bangladesh. There is no alternative to a knowledge-based education if we are to build a core of learned men and women who can serve both the country and other centres of excellence abroad. The poverty of the intellect must go.