Are education planners thinking ahead?
The higher education institutions (HEIs) in Bangladesh will continue to face numerous challenges in the coming days, which include the issues of quality, access, cost, capacity, consistency, and so on. To meet these challenges, there is a critical need to develop coherent, comprehensive, and socially responsive strategies to make higher education more relevant, rigorous, and proactive.
The political and academic leaders in the country will need to develop a clear vision and guiding mission of what to do with higher education. While there are many issues to contemplate, three significant issues looming in the horizon needing immediate attention, with political and social ramifications, are the burgeoning population, the state of human resource quality that needs to be upgraded to global standards, and the spiraling costs.
The first issue, the burgeoning population and its quest for higher education, is a demographic phenomenon that will not go away, nor can it be wished away. Each year more students are successfully completing their HSC examinations. Their appetite for higher education has also been whetted since reasonable and respectable jobs are not available without a basic graduation degree.
Clearly, as the demand for higher education continues to skyrocket, supply must keep pace with demand. Unfortunately, the malaise of resource inadequacy continues to deprive higher education of needed funds to build capacity in the education system, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to close the gap.
It is imperative, therefore, to employ creative strategies and bring in more private funds to the system or increase capacity utilisation of the existing facilities. In addition to physical capacity, there is also a tremendous need to add human capacity (mainly qualified teachers) to the higher education system very rapidly. Otherwise the inaccessibility of higher education to those who will have completed secondary education will increase even more dramatically.
Is anyone thinking about this large and growing group that is being systematically marginalised and relegated to depths of despair? Mostly unemployable, with their growing unrest, and its potential manifestation in a variety of socially unacceptable behaviours (from likely drug dealing to engaging in violent forms of behaviour), they will add to the country's dilemma in dealing with them.
The economic consequences in terms of lost opportunities by failing to bring this large group of wishful graduates on-stream as productive resources has not been estimated. The political consequences may also be difficult to assess as they become more inclined to join wayward political groups that offer them hope but introduce much instability to the nation.
Re-education is another strategic area that demands additional thinking and planning. Knowledge is not static; it evolves through a process that often builds on and enhances its foundations. The need to learn continuously is no longer an option: either one upgrades one's skills or becomes obsolete in a fast-changing world of globalisation.
New knowledge and its benefits are often unavailable to those who have already gone through the higher education system. Many of these people hold responsible positions. Today, many of them are stuck with outdated knowledge because once they are out of the education system they have little opportunity to get back in to enhance their knowledge and understanding of new developments, theories, and methods that might serve them better.
When these same people devise or dictate policy based on outdated understanding of the issues, the policies are likely to be flawed and possibly irrelevant. Simply put, they represent a huge drag factor that stymies a nation's growth potential.
Clearly, the education system must find a way to re-educate this group also. While re-education is an individual's responsibility, they must have the option to update and upgrade themselves. Is such capacity being contemplated? The alternative is that the nation risks remaining stuck in time, old-world imagination, and stupendous mediocrity.
The third factor, cost of higher education, according to some, is driven by a frenzy to make money. Many higher education institutions, in fact, are seen as moneymaking enterprises. There is also a contention that some of them "sell" certificates without requiring students to attend classes.
Given the income levels in the country, private universities also charge fees that seem to border on extortion. Such fees make education accessible only to the moneyed, spurring the average citizen to make money in any way possible to gain entry into the world of opportunity through the higher education system.
Unfortunately, the high price of education nowadays begins early on: Witness the exorbitant prices levied by private elementary schools and the private tutoring system that it has fostered.
The pricing pressure imposed by academia is creating adverse ripple effects in the economy that must be addressed and rationalised because these prices are not based on free market forces, but on restricted market structures that represent localised monopoly conditions.
Such conditions may be breaking the economic backbone of the country. It is important that the higher education system comes under careful scrutiny to bring about needed reform. Such reform may include industry-academy partnerships for the students to earn their way, government and/or private loans to be repaid upon employment, scholarships, and other innovative approaches.
The higher education system, today, is not only a window of opportunity at the individual level; it also has strategic implications for national growth. Thus, it needs to articulate a strong and pragmatic vision infused with meaning and purpose and energised with a strong sense of mission, growth plans, proper ideals, financial resources, and a strong community of excellent academicians and administrators to resuscitate and revitalise the system.
Hopefully, this article will serve to invigorate strategy dialogue and self-assessment to address the issues highlighted with resolve. Otherwise, demographic pressure, lack of opportunity to re-equip oneself with modern knowledge and concepts, and the continuing high costs will hinder future cohorts from shouldering the responsibility of nation building.
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