Supervision of private educational institutions

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THE standards of the private universities and educational institutions at higher levels of learning in the country do need to be raised in many cases as far as the facilities of education are concerned. A good number of such institutions do hardly possess the characteristics of real campuses. Housed on rented buildings for many years, these appear in some cases more like coaching centres than as real universities.
Even some private medical institutions in the country run graduation-level anatomy courses without the practical dissection of human bodies. The same kind of lapses is noted in the teaching of other disciplines and this is because the private institutions in most cases lack the means to provide fullsome education.
Part of the reason for this state of affairs relates to the crass profiteering motives and unscrupulousness of the operators of some such institutions. Most of the private universities in the country also teach mainly Business Studies or Computers. Not many private universities have the facility for students to study any of a variety of subjects in the physical sciences, humanities or the key social sciences.
The government should, no doubt, encourage the growth of private centres of higher education. But it must, at the same time, be much more serious about its supervisory functions to ensure that the private institutions meet appropriate standards and run efficiently.

Shahidul Alam
Baridhara, Dhaka