|
Higher education–revisiting the priorities
Dr. Hafiz G. A. Siddiqi
The importance of education can hardly be exaggerated. Low level of literacy and inadequacy in higher education are two main causes of underdevelopment. Historically, illiteracy has been reduced and promotion of higher education made by both public and private initiatives. But it is the state or government that have to take the main responsibility. Like food, clothing, housing and healthcare services education is also a basic need. Therefore, the state has the primary responsibility to raise and maintain the literacy level to that minimum without which the development of a nation cannot be sustained. But literacy is not enough. The state must institutionalize an educational system that will produce a minimum number of highly educated people without whom sustainable development is not possible. It is a matter of common sense that all levels of education—primary, secondary and tertiary—are public goods but not necessarily free good.
There was a time when politicians, policy makers, bureaucrats, educationists and general public thought that it was too risky to rely on the private sector for provision of tertiary education. But over time peoples’ perception and the role of the government have changed. Provision of higher education is no longer the exclusive domain of the state run universities. The efforts of the states are now supplemented by private initiatives.
The emergence of private sector
To the extent higher education is public good the state has the responsibility to provide it. But this expectation becomes too high if one looks at the mismatch of demand for and supply of higher education. History provides enough evidences that states have not been able to meet the increasing demand for higher education primarily due to financial constraints. With the overwhelming influence of market economy, there has been a continual decrease in public expenditures in higher education but increase in demand for higher education continued. There was a natural response both from the state or the government and general public to meet the challenges. Through governmental policy instruments combined with free market mechanism an enabling environment has been created to attract private investment for establishing institutions of higher learning and research. As a result, private sector has emerged as a strong provider of higher education globally. This is also true of Bangladesh. However, it is to be noted that in the USA a large number of market driven private universities, many of which are more than 100 years old, have already been providing high quality higher education. By now, in almost all other countries including China and Russia private universities are operating to provide quality education.
For rapid national development Bangladesh needs to develop all kinds of human resources adequately equipped with knowledge, technical skills and research capabilities. To alleviate poverty, to create employment opportunities, to develop infrastructures, to increase productivity in the agricultural, industrial and service sectors, and to produce teachers to teach at primary, secondary, higher secondary and tertiary levels Bangladesh needs an increasing number of educated people. This means Bangladesh needs Higher education for the development of every sector. Although the need for higher education is all pervasive, I present below only a few examples to make the point.
Food Security
For its increasing population, Bangladesh needs to produce enough food grain. For domestically induced food security the agricultural produces including food grains must be increased. In the past, Bangladesh has succeeded in increasing food grain production (rice in particular) by inventing various kinds of high yield varieties (HYV). Bangladesh Rice Research Institute has performed well in inventing new types of HYV. As a result, Bangladesh has been able to feed most of its population. But still we need to import substantial quantity of food grain. Recently, global price hike complicated by the export restrictions by the traditional food grain exporters has created a special need to increase domestic food production and ensure food security.
Given the static nature of arable land in Bangladesh, the only way to increase food production is to increase productivity/per acre yield, and also to increase cropping intensity. To achieve this, we must invent new methods/techniques to produce more food grains and other agricultural products like vegetables, potatoes, fruits, dairy products, etc. at lower cost, that is, with lower amount of inputs namely, land, irrigation water, fertilizer, better quality seed, better mix of insecticide and pesticides, etc. For invention/development of the required technological packages Bangladesh needs an increasing number of highly skilled soil scientists, agronomists, biotechnologists and other related agricultural scientists who are the products of the institutions of higher learning and research.
This means in the absence of a mechanism that institutionalizes a system of higher education and research to produce adequate number of scientists to undertake necessary research in the related disciplines that leads to scientific invention and development of new technologies to meet the new demands, there cannot be sustainable food security for Bangladesh.
Healthcare and clinical treatment
For its sustainable development, Bangladesh does not only need self sufficiency in food, it also needs, among many other things, hospitals for necessary clinical treatments of all kinds of patients and a network of healthcare services. Even the strategy of promoting higher education will not succeed if students do not have good health. If one is sick, he or she will have to stay away from attending school, college and university. This means, without good health one cannot even afford to be educated, let alone highly educated.
To provide affordable good clinical medical treatment and healthcare services the country needs a large number of medical universities, colleges and hospitals. These public facilities must be complemented by a network of private medical colleges, hospitals and clinics. In the urban areas there are too few hospitals for too many patients. In the rural areas the situation is far too disappointing. At Upazilla levels there are public healthcare centres or clinics. But it is alleged that there are only physical facilities (buildings) but grossly inadequate number of doctors, nurses, no medicines, no X-ray machines. At the private clinics one doctors works for several clinics. All these mean that we do not have adequate number of doctors specially cardiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, neurologists, orthopaedics, specialists in internal medicines, oncology, etc, and also well-trained nurses, pharmacists, etc.
Given this scenario, it is futile to talk about for achieving sustainable development unless Bangladesh can increase the number of medical doctors specialized in all disciplines necessary to maintain human health. In addition, supporting personnel like nurses, pharmacists and paramedics must also be produced. To produce such doctors and nurses Bangladesh needs to establish more medical universities, colleges and hospitals. This again calls for much more investment for the growth and development of higher education, in this medical and healthcare education. At this point in time higher education must get much higher priority than it got in the past.
Export diversification
The policy makers, exporters and academics equally recognize the need for export diversification. The recent global financial crisis has added a new dimension for which Bangladesh needs precautionary measures to minimize the adverse effects of the global financial meltdown. The US and EU are the largest export market for Bangladesh. Given the decline in the consumers’ purchasing power our export to these two markets have started showing declining trend in the RMG sector. There are several other sectors like pharmaceutical and human resources with higher skills that offer potential for phenomenal export growth.
At present, most of the workers from whom we get “remittances” are unskilled. In spite of this the amount of “remittances” is very impressive. This amount can be increased several times if we upgrade the quality of manpower we export. Instead of exporting domestic helps, street cleaners, etc (unskilled labour) the exporters can send nurses or electricians, masons or carpenters or a mix of them. To the list of electricians one can add electrical engineers and engineers with other specializations; to the list of engineers one can add doctors with various specializations.
Bangladesh can also export software engineers and IT experts. This is however a wish list or a realizable dream. Several conditions must be fulfilled to realize this dream. First, Bangladesh will have to build up it own supply capacity in response to demand in the importing countries. To convert people to be exportable “commodity”, they must be specially educated and trained in skills which the importing country can utilize. And to produce properly educated and trained human resources like nurses, doctors, Software engineers, IT experts higher level vocational training institutes, universities and globally recognized research institutions must be established. In other words, high priority investment needs to be made for promoting higher education.
Second, Bangladesh must meet another condition to increase the value of manpower exports. In addition to skill specific education and training, the high valued exportable manpower must go through language training. In most cases, this is English language. Reportedly, computer operators, nurses, doctors, engineers, office managers, business executives etc, from Bangladesh cannot compete with their competitors from India, and Sri Lanka because they are week in English specially in Spoken English. Third, the Export Promotion Bureau, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Foreign Affairs including Bangladesh embassies abroad and business leaders must make concerted efforts to market Bangladesh as an exporting country through high flying economic diplomacy. The third condition is also a function of high quality higher education and training.
Application of ICT
In this globalised world without IT education and application no large scale efficient managerial functions, logistic and transport management including seaport and airport management, either local or international business operations and educational administration is possible. e-Governance has become a prerequisite of good governance. The use of ICT is essential for leading normal economic and social life. One can ensure the application of ICT only if a large number of highly educated and skilled manpower is available. This can be ensured only through the provision of higher education.
The priority areas
Education and vocational training after 12 years of schooling is considered part of higher education. In our definition, all degree awarding colleges under National University, all universities of Engineering & Technology, (for example DUET), BSMRMU, BUET, Dhaka University, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Open University, MIST, BUP and all government approved private universities impart higher education. In 31 public universities (excepting National University and Open University) about 140000 students are now enrolled as opposed to 130000 students enrolled in 51 private universities. The number of candidates seeking admission at universities for higher education is increasing every year. But annual public expenditure in higher education is insignificant compared to that in the neighbouring countries. Primary reason is lower allocation of funds which emanates from lower priority given to higher education.
According to the Strategic Plan for Higher Education 2006-2026 prepared by UGC, only 0.12% of GDP is spent for higher education and research. The expenditure in research is not even worth mentioning. Lower priority to higher education hampered the growth and development of Bangladesh. One can see that in the rich and industrially developed countries investment in higher education and R&D as percentage of GDP is much higher. For example, R&D expenditures in Japan and USA were 3.15% and 2.59% of GDP respectively in 2003. Even in many developing countries that have excelled in economic development, investment in higher education and R&D is much higher than that in Bangladesh.
For example, China’s expenditure in R&D increased from 0.7% in 2004 to 1.4% in 2006. The capacities of the Chinese higher education system are being expanded significantly with an emphasis on the basic research for innovation and training of the R&D personnel. Similarly, Taiwan’s impressive GDP growth is attributed to its increased expenditure in higher education and R&D. Its R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP has increased from 2.18% in 2002 to 2.58 in 2006. Taiwan is implementing its ‘‘Program for Development of World Class Universities and Research Centres”. South Korea doubled its R&D expenditure during 1998-2002 from Euro 1.9 billion to Euro 3.6 billion. Korea plans to invest 3% of its GDP in 2010. The R&D expenditure as a % of GDP is highest in Israel (4.9%) and second highest in Finland (4%).
It is interesting to note that in the rapidly industrialized countries, it is the business sector that invests more than the government in R&D. South Korea, Taiwan and Israel are good examples. It is to be noted that total expenditure in higher education including R&D is much higher in these countries. R&D expenditure is only a part of the total expenditure in higher education.
India’s phenomenal rise as economic power can greatly be attributed to its assigning highest priority to high quality higher education, basic research, development of technology and vocational training. In addition to the several hundred State and 18 Central Universities, there is a network of research institutions that provide opportunities for advanced learning and research leading up to Ph.D. in various branches of science, technology, medical science, IT, agriculture and other disciplines. By operating its vast educational system, India has built-up a capacity to produce more than 500,000 engineers/scientists a year and thousands of doctors, medical researchers, agricultural scientists, managers, teachers, and other highly skilled personnel. All these highly educated personnel work as the prime movers of the country.
India could not have gone so high had it not assigned top priority to higher education including scientific and technological education, basic research and vocational training. Bangladesh should learn from the experiences of South Korea, Taiwan, China, and India and revisit its educational priorities. One must note that none of these countries assigned any lower priority to universal primary education. Unlike Bangladesh they simultaneously gave due priority to higher education.
In the past Bangladesh has rightly assigned highest priority to universal primary education. But ensuring near 100% literacy is only a necessary condition, not a sufficient condition for rapid national development. As evidenced by the experiences of the countries mentioned above, lower level of education must be complemented by higher level of education. Therefore higher education should get its due priority. In Bangladesh it has not happened. If Bangladesh does not go beyond primary and secondary education by assigning higher priority to higher education it will remain stagnated at low level of development. It is high time to revisit the priorities assigned to primary, secondary and higher including vocational education. To be sure, I do not in any way suggest that primary and secondary education should be given lower priority. What is suggested here is that higher education cannot any more be given lower priority as was the case in the past. In the present globalised knowledge economy the importance of higher education has further increased. Bangladesh needs to formulate its new strategies to turn Bangladesh into a knowledge-economy using higher level education and research.
While balancing its priorities, Bangladesh should also reform its strategies to ensure effective promotion of higher education, basic research, development of technologies and vocational training. Since public sector will never be able to meet the increasing demand for higher education the government must take the responsibility to create and maintain an enabling environment so that private individuals and foundations are continuously motivated to establish private institutions of higher learning and vocational training.
Currently some 51 private universities are operating in Bangladesh. It is true that not all of them are performing well. Many of them are poorly managed and therefore of poor quality. Assuming that it has both legal and moral responsibility to ensure quality of education imparted by the private universities, the government has initiated remedial measures by proposing to replace the 1992 Act by a completely new Private University Act 2008. This initiative of the government has angered the founders of many of the universities. It seems that a kind of adversarial relationship exits between the government and those founders. This is not desirable at all. Hot debates are going on between the government and the founders of the universities on some provisions/articles of the Private Universities Act (existing-1992 and the proposed-2008). Both parties have genuine grounds to argue for and against. But for the sake of promoting higher education through private initiatives, neither party should go for confrontation; rather the problems should be resolved with logic and negotiation for removing misinterpretation of the views each party holds. We must remember, Bangladesh will need many more good quality private universities.
To promote higher education the government must encourage private investment through suitable policy instruments like tax incentives. In addition, the government must increase the capacity of such research institutes as BRRI, Jute Research Institute, BCSIR, etc to encourage basic research. There should be public-private partnership to create large endowment to develop research facilities at the universities. Beside, as has been done in Korea, Japan and India, the corporate sector should build up a new culture for promoting individual basic research cells at Bangladeshi companies. The government needs to formulate policy for assigning high priority to promote private research institutions. More importantly, the government needs to formulate a comprehensive national manpower plan projecting manpower needs of every sector for say next 20 years. On the basis of this manpower plan, a plan for promoting/establishing the required number of public and private universities and research institutions must be prepared and implemented. Without this, Bangladesh will remain stagnated at low level of development.
[The author is the Vice Chancellor of North South University]
 ^ TOP OF THIS PAGE ^
|
