Human resource development — a key to progress and growth

The importance of human resource cannot be over exaggerated. It occupies a key position in the development process of modem economy. Exploitation of natural resources, availability of financial services and foreign aid play important roles in the development of a country. But none of these factors is more significant than efficient and competent manpower. It is said that all development comes from human mind.
The real strength of a country and its institutions depends on the quality and capability of human resources. Dynamic and committed manpower helps the growth of an organisation and the achievement of its goals. An organisation to be successful needs to ensure dynamic, motivated and competent human resources for it. Proper utilisation of developed human resources is of vital importance for all organisations and for a country. To achieve the goals of an organisation, its managers should not only recruit competent people, they should develop them and for that matter train them up.
Bangladesh emerged as an independent country 44 years ago. On the one hand, the country is overpopulated, the density of population per square mile being about 2600 persons. On the other hand, lack of skilled manpower hamstrings development - 29.5 per cent people are still smarting under poverty which is the main cause of low rate of literacy. The huge and growing underemployment crisis compels workers to take the risk of life to go abroad for jobs.
Unemployed people have become a liability of the society and they cannot contribute anything to gross domestic product (GDP). Human resource development is a sine qua non of development and Bangladesh is no exception to it. Human resource development is all the more important primary process through which individual and organiational ability can achieve its fullest potential. And education is the major contributor to that process. Because it has direct and indirect impact not only on knowledge and ability but also on character and culture, hopes and aspirations of an individual which has an important bearing on his/her performance when he/she enters the job market.
Through education and training an individual can accomplish defined task, increase knowledge and skill and thereby raise productivity. Therefore, there needs to be a coherent and well planned integration of education and training for continuous development of the country.     
If through education and training we can turn people into assets, our GDP will be much higher. Very often we cite examples of Japan, Korea, Singapore and Malaysia as role models of development. But we tend to forget that these countries have notched up spectacular progress because of quality of education, training and leadership. After second world war Japan attached highest importance to education for development of its human resources. It formulated plans and programmes accordingly. Bangladesh also needs educated, trained and committed manpower to speed up development process and for that matter to accelerate the rate of growth in order to become a middle income country by 2021 and achieve all the targets of Millennium Development Goals (MDG). Therefore, we should lay special emphasis on education and for this purpose highest allocation should be given to education. Not only this. The utilisation of the entire allocation should also be ensured. Besides education, we should make more allocation to development of health and nutrition in order to enhance the contribution of the manpower to GDP. Special facilities should be provided to the physically handicapped people for their education and training to develop them as resources. Education for the women belonging to poor income bracket should be made free up to university level and subsidy for this purpose should be given to the concerned educational institutions. It is said that human development if not engendered is endangered (UNDP report 1995). Since poverty has a direct bearing on low rate of literacy, the coverage of social safety net programmes (SSNP) should be expanded to reduce poverty at a faster rate.
To develop human resources for accelerating development process, all appointments and promotions in government jobs should be made on merit basis. But quota for the tribal people can be retained for a few more years. And merit with due regard to experiences should be the sole criterion of promotion. No extraneous factor should be allowed to influence the above aspects of administration.
At the same time for development and proper utilisation of human resources, the principle of 'right man at the right place' should be adhered to. There should be political consensus on the above-mentioned aspects of personnel administration and, for that matter, a policy dialogue among the politicians and other stakeholders is an urgent necessity.
Steps should also be taken to prevent brain drain and various incentives may be provided under a well-integrated plan for this purpose. Besides, special projects may be taken up for public servants for obtaining higher degrees from abroad and also for their training abroad.
More vocational and technical training centres may be set up at district and upazila levels. More allocation should be given for research in the research institutes and the universities. There is a huge demand for nurses in the Middle East, specially in Saudi Arabia. So to cater to their needs, more nurses should be trained and for this purpose more nursing institutes should be set up by the government. The private sector should also be encouraged to do the same. It may also be done under public private partnership (PPP). If skilled manpower can be sent abroad, it will fetch much more remittance.
Development of human resources involves language proficiency, specially proficiency in English, communication skill and knowledge of information technology. If these parameters conform to international standard, then one can say that a knowledge-based society has been established. The present staffing pattern does not fulfill the requirements of the educational institutions. Hence the staffing pattern should changed to facilitate appointment of more qualified teachers in both government and non-government educational institutions at secondary and higher secondary levels. Special projects may be taken up for intensive and extensive training of teachers.
We have not yet given due importance to the creation of skilled manpower in our garments sector where a good number of foreigners are working. If we can create skilled manpower through education and training, we can reduce our dependence on foreign expertise and thereby save our hard earned foreign exchange. So the government should determine which jobs will require how much manpower for the next five years and accordingly it should make arrangement for job-oriented education and training. As a result, the job market will be expanded. Private sector can also play an important role in respect of education and training in this sector under its corporate social responsibility (CSR).
Since there is resource constraint, we should fix and, rationalise the priorities in allocating funds to different sectors. There should be less allocation to unproductive sectors like defence and unnecessary and wasteful projects should be jettisoned and the resources thus saved should be allocated to education, training, health and nutrition. It may be mentioned that a good number of development projects are taken up on political considerations resulting in wastage of scant resources. Strong political will is needed to avoid these projects and other wasteful expenditures incurred on different occasions. We can mobilise much more internal resources if we can prevent evasion of taxes and customs duty through good governance in revenue collection and if we can expand the tax network.
Both the government and the private sector should work for the development of human resources and acceleration of the development process.

Md. Matiur Rahman is a former Secretary to the Government
of Bangladesh.