Neglected polytechnic institutes

Twenty of the institutes are run under revenue budgets, while the rest are operated under different projects. The teachers have claimed that irregular promotion and recruitment, the absence of a gradation list and the indifference of the authorities concerned to the problems and needs of the polytechnic institutes are responsible for the acute shortage of teaching staff. However, the project status of nearly half the number of the institutes is a bit unsettling since the projects are left with a little more than a year before expiry.

Whatever may be the reason, technical education cannot be imparted smoothly under such circumstances. And we can ill-afford to be oblivious of its importance. Not long ago a famous economist observed that Bangladesh needed a string of well-equipped polytechnic institutes with an assured flow of mid-rung engineers who would form the building blocks in national progress. The observation could really provide us a guideline for beefing up technical education in the country. But the void in such a priority area is indeed surprising.

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The technical education authorities must address the issue of shortage of teachers in earnest. They have to fill up the vacant posts as soon as possible. What they have to realise is that if the quality of technical education is made to suffer, a very important foundation of national development will have been weakened.

Headless institutions can only be the image of wobbly, directionless bodies. Let the government get a move on to streamline the chaotic technical education management situation.