Looming gloom over the education system

It looks like a fait accompli, as medical admission process is all but over. Those who alleged question leaks are in the street, the ones declared having passed the admission tests are taken in. The riddle remains cloaked in mystery.
The health ministry stuck to its stand that 'there wasn't any question leakage', that the medical and dental college admission tests were fair. The protesting students exhibited video clips trying to prove that the questions were leaked to select ones. They also cited the incident of a UGC assistant director having been caught by RAB allegedly red-handed while digitally sending answers into exam halls in aid to those who paid for.
Dead men tell no tales. The death of the UGC official in custody laid confessions buried with him.  
Not that all of those who got through the sacrosanct doors of medical colleges had bought off the pass. But if the protesters' complaint contains any substance, many brains among those left out were excluded from the scope of serving in the life-saving sector. It should not merely be seen as deprivation of individuals but of the nation at large in the long run.
The immediate challenge, however, is unrest not only in medical education but beyond, in a spill over effect. The malcontents are calling strike in academic arena, blocking rush-hour traffic on the usually jammed city streets. At the peak, the agitating students resorted to a fast-unto-death strike.                      
The medical melodrama came as a sequel of education-disrupting actions and reactions from government and teachers and students alike. The first fracas had stemmed from the imposition of value added tax (VAT) on private university education. A massive movement by the taxed students was calmed with the withholding of the VAT.
 In tandem the teachers of public universities came out to protest what they called their downgrading in the warrant of precedence to the bureaucrats through the new pay scale. They have put off, not forsaken, their demand for a separate pay scale for the education sector.
Such chain of hustle and bustle in the serene sector of building intellectual property of the nation is silently producing two worrisome outcomes: brain-drain and exclusion of merit from where it is vitally needed particularly when the government pursues a vital vision of elevating Bangladesh to the status of a middle-income country (MIC).
If public-service jobs are sold out beforehand and answers to questions in job tests are supplied to the select ones, really deserving candidates with better educational capabilities get plucked. The principle of putting the right person in the right place is, thus, trampled. The wrong ones triumph-and fail to deliver the desired services in the end.                       
When questions are leaked to average ones-be it for money or nepotism-the meritorious students are pushed behind by them in respect of results, better opportunities for further learning and recruitment in important fields.
Through this unholy process of negation, there takes place the downgrading of the services, professions, academia and so on. A nation, thus, is cursed with less-calibrated administration, professional delivery in vital fields like education, healthcare, research, innovations and the like.
The medical field is a very delicate one to tamper with. It's called lifesaving sector. In the profession of teaching and practising medicine the best brains must be pulled in, for the common good. The students who had sat for the tests but failed to qualify brought the allegation of question leaks and carried on agitation to press for cancelling the test results and arranging a retake. However, it is learnt that the admission process on the basis of the test results got underway as per schedule. But the protesters appear hell-bent on realising their demand.
 At this stage of the situation in the country's education sector, a holistic approach to the piled-up problems is seen by academics and experts as a step in the right direction. Already, many students who can afford are making a beeline for going abroad for higher education and ultimately for careers in foreign lands. Many brilliant ones among the rest are left out from right chances for such result, certificate and recruitment tampering.  And the frustration among the teachers will only fuel further the trend of many leaving for foreign countries on liens or even unauthorised leave.
The people of this land have witnessed, willy-nilly, blueprints in action at different crossroads of their history to leave them behind as a brain-beggared nation. The actions are better understood than explained in specific terms.
Let there be light before it's too late, let us rise to the occasion to set things right. Let hundred flowers bloom and hundred schools of thought compete. Only this way can we unlock the potential for building a future of shared prosperity and peace.                                            
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