Limited number of publicly run educational institutions
Saturday, 23 April 2011
Mainul Islam
Many factors are working as disincentives to higher education in Bangladesh. First of all, opportunities for higher education have progressively decreased over the years. Hundreds of aspirants vie for a single seat in any of the departments of the Dhaka University. The scene is more or less the same in all other limited public institutions of higher learning in the country. Thus, many otherwise promising students find themselves excluded from the opportunity of higher education mainly because the number of general public universities and specialised public universities has not increased or the capacities in them to admit more students remain the same. The private universities that have cropped up charge high fees that cannot be afforded by many otherwise good students. Therefore, it is imperative to increase the number of publicly-run centres of higher education and institutions offering specialized education and training. Besides increasing their number, every effort must also be made to impart quality education in them. The resources of these publicly-run institutions will need to be increased with greater allocations from the national budget for the purpose. All concerned would, of course, agree that the institutions themselves can reasonably increase tuition fees and other charges to meet increasing costs. Presently, tuition and other costs at public universities are nominal and guardians will probably not find it hard to pay somewhat higher fees and other charges for the sound education of their young ones. The resources, thus mobilised, can be utilsed through an accountable and transparent procedure on libraries, acquisition of teaching materials, laboratories, paying incentive salaries to teachers, etc.
Many factors are working as disincentives to higher education in Bangladesh. First of all, opportunities for higher education have progressively decreased over the years. Hundreds of aspirants vie for a single seat in any of the departments of the Dhaka University. The scene is more or less the same in all other limited public institutions of higher learning in the country. Thus, many otherwise promising students find themselves excluded from the opportunity of higher education mainly because the number of general public universities and specialised public universities has not increased or the capacities in them to admit more students remain the same. The private universities that have cropped up charge high fees that cannot be afforded by many otherwise good students. Therefore, it is imperative to increase the number of publicly-run centres of higher education and institutions offering specialized education and training. Besides increasing their number, every effort must also be made to impart quality education in them. The resources of these publicly-run institutions will need to be increased with greater allocations from the national budget for the purpose. All concerned would, of course, agree that the institutions themselves can reasonably increase tuition fees and other charges to meet increasing costs. Presently, tuition and other costs at public universities are nominal and guardians will probably not find it hard to pay somewhat higher fees and other charges for the sound education of their young ones. The resources, thus mobilised, can be utilsed through an accountable and transparent procedure on libraries, acquisition of teaching materials, laboratories, paying incentive salaries to teachers, etc.