Technical education
Wednesday, 29 August 2007
THE fast-changing developments in today's globalised economy that are largely technology-driven heighten the need for expanding the base of technical education in the country. This base has to be strengthened not only in number of related educational institutions but also in the quality thereof. On both counts, Bangladesh scores badly. There has not been much of any expansion in real and effective terms of quality technical education in the country over the years. There is a gross mismatch with the demands of the situation in a nation of about 140 million. The reason thereof is the uncaring attitude of successive governments towards technical education .
But no opportunity has been missed by government leaders in the last decade and the present one to create hopes that a big push is around the corner to expand the facilities for technical education. The same include pledges by a previous government about building at least a dozen science and technology universities during its tenure. But that pledge was not redeemed. Thus, such words have proved to be cliches and little else with the state of technical education remaining more or less in the same static form, in real terms, as it has been since the country's independence.
There was seen no shortage of understanding among successive governments about the very great importance of specially patronising technical education to build up ample human resources for their application in various economic activities to accelerate economic growth. This awareness also led to frequent governmental announcements about moves to substantially increase the capacities for technical education. But in the absence of actual steps taken to this end, the official pronouncements have been nothing but misleading assurances. The budgets in recent years have routinely allocated the highest amounts of funds for the education sector. But the lion's share of such allocations were seen spent on paying salaries to teachers and meeting routine administrative expenditures in the education sectors. Thus, there was little available for developmental activities in the education sector.
Bangladesh could have utilised better its precious post-independence period through a proper plan in place to gradually expand the opportunities for technical education by setting up many engineering universities and colleges, medical universities and colleges, agricultural universities and colleges, polytechnics, specialised educational institutes related to different economic sectors such as leather, electronics, etc. But institutions to impart technical education have hardly increased since the time of independence. Investments in technical education call for relatively much greater investments compared to other fields of education like business or the humanities. Thus, the private sector is seen reluctant to invest in technical education. Besides, the general student population of the country are unlikely to afford the high costs of private technical education. In this situation, governments should have played their part in building and operating many educational institutions to impart diverse forms of technical education. But this was not done and technical education continues to be a neglected area. This state of affairs must end. Government must be guided by a proper vision of the educational needs of the nation and provision should be much more for technical education than what has been so far made.
But no opportunity has been missed by government leaders in the last decade and the present one to create hopes that a big push is around the corner to expand the facilities for technical education. The same include pledges by a previous government about building at least a dozen science and technology universities during its tenure. But that pledge was not redeemed. Thus, such words have proved to be cliches and little else with the state of technical education remaining more or less in the same static form, in real terms, as it has been since the country's independence.
There was seen no shortage of understanding among successive governments about the very great importance of specially patronising technical education to build up ample human resources for their application in various economic activities to accelerate economic growth. This awareness also led to frequent governmental announcements about moves to substantially increase the capacities for technical education. But in the absence of actual steps taken to this end, the official pronouncements have been nothing but misleading assurances. The budgets in recent years have routinely allocated the highest amounts of funds for the education sector. But the lion's share of such allocations were seen spent on paying salaries to teachers and meeting routine administrative expenditures in the education sectors. Thus, there was little available for developmental activities in the education sector.
Bangladesh could have utilised better its precious post-independence period through a proper plan in place to gradually expand the opportunities for technical education by setting up many engineering universities and colleges, medical universities and colleges, agricultural universities and colleges, polytechnics, specialised educational institutes related to different economic sectors such as leather, electronics, etc. But institutions to impart technical education have hardly increased since the time of independence. Investments in technical education call for relatively much greater investments compared to other fields of education like business or the humanities. Thus, the private sector is seen reluctant to invest in technical education. Besides, the general student population of the country are unlikely to afford the high costs of private technical education. In this situation, governments should have played their part in building and operating many educational institutions to impart diverse forms of technical education. But this was not done and technical education continues to be a neglected area. This state of affairs must end. Government must be guided by a proper vision of the educational needs of the nation and provision should be much more for technical education than what has been so far made.