Reforming legal education
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Gopal Sengupta
The higher education system is central to developing a knowledge-based society in Bangladesh. Within the paradigm of such reforms, drastic steps need to be taken to address the numerous challenges facing legal education in Bangladesh. There should be a re-look into the existing system of establishing state-supported institutions such as national law schools or law faculties and law departments in our public and private universities. While the national law schools established in many universities paved the way for important reforms, they have not been able to address several issues concerning legal education. The first is the question of providing a good education and the second is the challenge of promoting a vibrant research environment in the institutions. While institutions established by the government have their own challenges of governance and maintenance of standards, most private initiatives in the field of education, including legal education, have not been impressive. Privatization has not been able to raise academic standards in terms of either the quality of the faculty and students or the promotion of research within the institutions. Since private initiatives in the field of education have largely been perceived as mediocre commercial ventures and not as initiatives to promote knowledge, there has been gross deterioration in standards. Our government leaders have made many mistakes in the past when they have lost sight of the sacred American values rooted in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We are at the brink of even graver mistakes and assaults on these values. Men of authority have employed all the destructive agents around them to promote their own personal interests at the sacrifice of every just, honourable, and lawful consideration. The roads are filled with armed robbers, and murders for mere plunder are of daily occurrence. A true world outlook is incompatible with a foreign imperialism, no matter how high-minded the governing country. And political parties, overanxious for vote catching, become tolerant to intolerable groups. The focus of tolerance in education is to deal with the concept of equality and fairness. We need to establish confidence with children that there is more goodness than horror in this world. What a privilege to be here on the planet to contribute your unique donation to humankind. Each face in the rainbow of colours that populate our world is precious and special. Without public pressure from caring people, lawsuits alone will not be enough to stop this widespread abuse. Indifference is harder to fight than hostility, and there is nothing that kills an agitation like having everybody admit that it is fundamentally right. It is all right for the lion and the lamb to lie down together if they are both asleep, but if one of them begins to get active, it is dangerous. Legal education in Bangladesh needs reforms that would support the establishment of global law schools combining the best traditions of public educational institutions with the needed flexibility, freedom, and autonomy enjoyed by private initiatives - all within the public good framework of a non-profit endeavour. In this context, there is a need to actively seek and encourage philanthropic initiatives in the field of legal education. The system of creating endowments - both individual and corporate - has to be significantly promoted. To create a truly global law school, it is important to recognize the need to promote a global curriculum, global faculty, global degrees, and global interaction within the Bangladeshi context. For this, the initiatives ought to come from private individuals and institutions ready and willing to support the establishment of global educational institutions with the highest standards in teaching and research for the purpose of creating and disseminating knowledge. ............................................. The writer lives in Canada and he can be reached at e-mail : gopalsengupta@aol.com
The higher education system is central to developing a knowledge-based society in Bangladesh. Within the paradigm of such reforms, drastic steps need to be taken to address the numerous challenges facing legal education in Bangladesh. There should be a re-look into the existing system of establishing state-supported institutions such as national law schools or law faculties and law departments in our public and private universities. While the national law schools established in many universities paved the way for important reforms, they have not been able to address several issues concerning legal education. The first is the question of providing a good education and the second is the challenge of promoting a vibrant research environment in the institutions. While institutions established by the government have their own challenges of governance and maintenance of standards, most private initiatives in the field of education, including legal education, have not been impressive. Privatization has not been able to raise academic standards in terms of either the quality of the faculty and students or the promotion of research within the institutions. Since private initiatives in the field of education have largely been perceived as mediocre commercial ventures and not as initiatives to promote knowledge, there has been gross deterioration in standards. Our government leaders have made many mistakes in the past when they have lost sight of the sacred American values rooted in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. We are at the brink of even graver mistakes and assaults on these values. Men of authority have employed all the destructive agents around them to promote their own personal interests at the sacrifice of every just, honourable, and lawful consideration. The roads are filled with armed robbers, and murders for mere plunder are of daily occurrence. A true world outlook is incompatible with a foreign imperialism, no matter how high-minded the governing country. And political parties, overanxious for vote catching, become tolerant to intolerable groups. The focus of tolerance in education is to deal with the concept of equality and fairness. We need to establish confidence with children that there is more goodness than horror in this world. What a privilege to be here on the planet to contribute your unique donation to humankind. Each face in the rainbow of colours that populate our world is precious and special. Without public pressure from caring people, lawsuits alone will not be enough to stop this widespread abuse. Indifference is harder to fight than hostility, and there is nothing that kills an agitation like having everybody admit that it is fundamentally right. It is all right for the lion and the lamb to lie down together if they are both asleep, but if one of them begins to get active, it is dangerous. Legal education in Bangladesh needs reforms that would support the establishment of global law schools combining the best traditions of public educational institutions with the needed flexibility, freedom, and autonomy enjoyed by private initiatives - all within the public good framework of a non-profit endeavour. In this context, there is a need to actively seek and encourage philanthropic initiatives in the field of legal education. The system of creating endowments - both individual and corporate - has to be significantly promoted. To create a truly global law school, it is important to recognize the need to promote a global curriculum, global faculty, global degrees, and global interaction within the Bangladeshi context. For this, the initiatives ought to come from private individuals and institutions ready and willing to support the establishment of global educational institutions with the highest standards in teaching and research for the purpose of creating and disseminating knowledge. ............................................. The writer lives in Canada and he can be reached at e-mail : gopalsengupta@aol.com