Rethinking about higher education system in Bangladesh

There is no denying the fact that 'Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world' as said by Nelson Mandela. Needless to say, education is the password in the path of enlightenment and prosperity. But if a country's education system particularly higher education system is not in the proper direction, then the future of that country may not be smooth. The title of this write-up clearly indicates the loopholes/sorry state in our higher education system since the term 'redefining or rethinking' comes into the forefront when the existing systems do not work out with the pace of new challenges, opportunities, as well as demands.
Although there are total number of universities in Bangladesh is 73 while 21 universities are in the public sector and the rest 52 are in private sector, the standard/ value of education is one of the talks of the topic in Bangladesh. Every year the number of bachelor degree (pass/honours) certified students is approximately 10 lacs.  Are they able to fulfil the main purpose of honours level education? Or are they acting like the ignorant soldiers who do not know destination?
Education is the ultimate source of knowledge, the traditional proverb says about education. The implication of education is highly appreciable when it comes through the learning process. It plays a very crucial role to bring social mobility and change. 'Education stimulates and empowers people to participate in their own development' (Chowdhury et al, 1). On the contrary, the opposite sight will be seen when the education system is collapsed in higher education level because of proper gaining process of knowledge.
Why should we rethink our traditional system of education? As I mentioned it about, the structure of traditional system is not systematic enough to acquire actual knowledge. If we go back to the history it is seen that during the time of crisis or any other important moment students' participation at university level was notable. They even were ready to sacrifice their lives for the nation. Language movement, 1952 and liberation war 1971 are the probable example of these. Due to the passage of time it is noticeable that students are losing their interest to do innovative works. After completing the graduation the ratio of good level students are really less though it was supposed to be more because every student has the potentiality to contribute for their own self.  
What are the loopholes of old-fashioned education system? First, there is a maintenance of hierarchy between teachers and students. In this context, let me give you an example. One day I was in a queue for taking my lunch. I was in a hurry because I had to attend for another class. Suddenly, a man stood in front of me. Then I asked him, "Why have you broken the rules?" He just smiled and replied me, "Oh! I'm sorry, extremely sorry! You know I just entered the café from the second door and I thought this is  another line." He gave me my position to collect my food. His behaviour was very amiable towards me. He was nobody but one of the teachers of our faculty. Another day we sat together and took our food, talked with each other like friends. He was trying to know every aspect what I was telling as if he were a learner. It opened my third eyes. How is the relationship between teachers and students in Bangladesh? In Bangladesh it is seen that in university level also, there is a strong hierarchy between teachers and students. They usually believe the traditional system that teachers will be superior and there should be a gap between teachers and students. As a result, if students are facing any problem they never dare to ask anything to their teacher. The problem creates another problem.
Another important issue is teacher crisis. The ratio of teacher and student is very high. Especially in public university, in one classroom a teacher has to handle 100 to 200 students. If one teacher is fixed for 100 to 200 students it is very difficult for the teacher to maintain classroom and after taking class giving extra time to his/ her students. As a result it is not possible for a teacher to treat everybody equally. Moreover, it is not possible to develop the interaction between teachers and students.
Today the whole world is in the middle of our hand with the help of science and technology. We can easily grasp everything with the help of internet. Journals, magazines, all information are available in website. Despite all kinds of facilities, teachers do not heed attention of learning. They are not interested to deliver lecture beyond text.  In many cases they would like to pass their whole teaching life by reading out notes. The colour of that reading materials will be yellow but they will not update it and will not learn something new. I am not criticising teachers but the whole structure is 'structured structure' according to Bourdieu. As a result, the whole teaching system is not going through a learning process. Particularly in case of art faculty, anybody can secure good grades without understanding but memorising. So the traditional process of learning does not give the chance to the students to learn new things.
Due to this, the students' creativity is gradually decreasing. After entering into honours level they prepare themselves for getting good jobs. Due to lack of their understanding in job sector also they are not able to manage good jobs.
Academic excellence in the higher education is quite missing in Bangladesh. Although, once the University of Dhaka was known as 'Oxford of the East', today it cannot enter into the list of 5000 universities in the world. University teachers hardly study and do research after entering into teaching profession except some required number of publications for their promotion. For instance, although currently 1938 teachers are working at the University of Dhaka under 73 departments, but the number of their publications in international journal was 150 articles from 24 departments during 2009-2010 session while 187 articles from 34 departments during the 2011-2012 session (Zayeef 2014). This clearly indicates the sorry state of scholarships of Dhaka University teachers. The picture in other public university is almost the same.
In this age of globalisation and knowledge economy, while the whole world is investing and focusing on the academic excellence in higher education, Bangladesh is lagging behind. In a recent (May 11, 2014) report of The Economic Times, it is referred that 'once lagging behind India, China has managed to build its universities in a short span of time with state support. It has two universities in the top 50, and has emerged as the third largest education hub after the US and UK. China has taken two programmes--project 211 and project 985-aspire to build 100 world class universities. I understand that compared to China, Bangladesh has resource limitations, but if China's university can be in top 50, Bangladesh's university should be in top 500. Shouldn't it? Therefore, there is no alternative to rethink our higher education system to ensure the survival and prosperity of Bangladesh since [proper] education is the backbone of a nation.
The writer is pursuing Master's in Sociology at the South Asian University, New Delhi. She can be reached at [email protected].