Prime Minister Tarique Rahman today said Bangladesh’s universities are yet to reach the expected level in global university rankings in education, research and knowledge excellence.
He made the remarks while speaking as the chief guest at a workshop titled “Transforming Higher Education in Bangladesh” at Dhaka University this morning.
The prime minister said, “In rankings, generally research publications, citations, and innovation are given more importance. Where we stand in that case is something our educationists will surely think about more. Not only textbook-based education, if universities do not pay attention to research and innovation, it will become hard for us to survive in the competitive world.”
Tarique said a democratic government had been established in Bangladesh after more than one and a half decades, at the cost of thousands of lives.
He said the government, being accountable to the people, wants to build a safe Bangladesh for the present and future generations.
“The present democratic government wants to build a knowledge-based and merit-based state and society. The main foundation of building a knowledge-based and merit-based society is to create such an environment where education, research, merit, qualification, and creativity will get the highest importance.”
“Through our joint efforts, we want such an education system that will enlighten both our present Bangladesh and future Bangladesh. For the sake of a prosperous future, we will surely embrace technological excellence.
“However, we must not lose the age-old religious, social and moral values of our state and society. In this regard, I call upon teachers, journalists, intellectuals, professionals, and people from all walks of life to remain cautious and vigilant.”
Tarique said the country must move away from a memorisation-based and certificate-dependent education system to face the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and enter the new job market.
He said that in many countries, including Britain, university alumni support research and innovation activities at their own universities.
On this matter, the prime minister said, “The students of Dhaka University and different universities of the country who are now established at home and abroad in knowledge, science, money, and wealth, I humbly call upon the educationists present here to take initiatives to involve those alumni in the development of education and research at the universities.”
Tarique said the government has taken effective steps to make the education system time-appropriate by increasing apprenticeship, internship and industry-academia cooperation.
“At first, this activity is being started by building relations between universities located in divisional cities and local educational and business institutions. As a result, students will be able to gain practical education along with textbook-based learning and gain work skills while they are still students. As a result, after finishing their education life, they will no longer have to remain unemployed.”
The prime minister said an initiative has been taken to provide seed funding or innovation grants through a competitive process to commercialise innovative business ideas in colleges and universities.
“The purpose of this is to create business entrepreneurs from the campus. As a result, these entrepreneurs will be able to contribute to the country’s economy by implementing new and creative business ideas. Because of gaining work skills while still being students, it may also happen that a student will not wait for a job and will instead be able to create employment for several others as an entrepreneur.”
Tarique said failure to gain skills alongside academic education is one of the main reasons for high unemployment among educated people.
He said the government believes that reshaping the education curriculum, from the primary syllabus to the higher level, has become a demand of the time.
Tarique said unemployment cannot be reduced without work-oriented education based on moral values. Bangladesh also cannot survive in global competition without a time-appropriate education curriculum.
For this reason, he said, the government has started work to make the academic syllabus time-appropriate.
He said the government is planning to establish “Innovation and Entrepreneur Development Institutes” and “Science Parks” in higher education institutions.
“On the basis of partnership with local and foreign organisations, the government has taken a plan to encourage such education and skill-related events at universities, including science fairs, innovation fairs, and product sourcing fairs. Not only in higher education, the government has also taken a plan to make technical and practical education compulsory in the education curriculum from the school level.”
He further said Bangladesh also has many talented people, and if they get opportunities or facilities, it is not impossible for them to do something world-class.
This is the prime minister’s first official visit to his alma mater since assuming office.