What type of education?

A complete overhaul of the education system is very necessary. The present system in Bangladesh produces mainly literates or generalists or the ones having religious education along traditional lines without having relevance to the needs of the present times, in madrashas. They are of little use for the country's developmental or economic needs. The thrust right from the primary to secondary and higher secondary stages should be on need-based education. Agricultural, vocational, scientific, technical and managerial education should form important components of syllabuses progressively throughout these stages. Sea-changes will have to be achieved to these ends in the field of teachers' training, recasting of syllabuses and other related matters. Substantial investments are required to build specialised educational or training institutions to create diverse human resources in fields such as leather technology, fashion designing, marine technology, agro-products processing, information technology, seafood processing, modern farming, etc. Investments in such specialized and sector-based educational institutions can have the most effect in taking care of the supply sides requirements to expedite economic growth. Greater public sector investments in technical and higher education is also necessary because the majority of the pupils are in no position to afford such education at home or abroad. Only greater public sector resources going into the above forms of education, even at the cost of government subsidies, should produce the highly beneficial long term effect of creating a growing pool of technically able manpower in the country for engaging in various tasks to expand the economy in to-day's competitive world. Samiul Haque Dhanmondi, Dhaka