A RECENT article published in the daily 抖阴精品 came with an alarming fact that the enrolment of secondary students for science education in Bangladesh has been on the ebb for several years. Even, worse is the scenario with the higher secondary and tertiary studies in science. In both the cases, statistics show that the number of students interested in science studies is below 30 in a hundred.
Another study covering data between 2005 and 2009 conducted by a science professor in the University of Dhaka showed that female students鈥� enrolment for science subjects was coming down as they were more susceptible to job allurement offered by business enterprises, including the trading companies in science and techno-based products and opted for degrees in business administration. Ironically, instead of availing the chance to flourish as inventors of science and technology鈥檚 bounties, the portable devices and commodities, they preferred to be merchandisers.
Assumingly, what is indicative of the big picture of learning and acquisition of knowledge is bleak. Because, it is not merely a temporary statistical figure which would eventually shoot up on its own. It is, rather, the surfaced truth that an unfriendly, unwelcoming environment in education ecosystem gradually belittling the importance of science education that is in need of urgent care and nurture for sustainable benefits of our national advancement.
If we mean to build a progressive country in the true sense, we cannot afford to neglect the unfolded truth about declining interest and efforts to learn science with all its branches: from cosmology to cryptozoology and whatever comes in between 鈥� physics, environment, aquamarine, psychology, palaeontology and what not and why not.
Untimely, frequent project-based experimentations with education system could be the single reason which gave birth to today鈥檚 reluctance of the students at studying science in schools and colleges. Science books are full of intricate, monotonous theory with little practical approach to make pupils engage to application of them, neither in laboratories nor in outdoor fields. It was long trodden path in the midst of which many an Einstein, Jamal Nazrul and Jagadish Candra Bose got off track and did not bag any accolades other than a BSc certificate later used in no other purpose than to be a low paid, local high schoolteacher.
Even to acquire that, they had to make arrangement with the big name science teacher of the day to enrol in the batches after school for private mentorship at a good price, a regular budgetary allocation from the sales of seasonal crop in a well-to-do farmer鈥檚 family in a rural village. Moreover, there was demand and supply mismatch. The question of who is more lucrative, earning-wise, became debatable. The general mathematics teacher, higher mathematics teacher, biology teacher or chemistry? Furthermore, the cost involved in practical classes and examinations and scripts exacerbated the show. So varied was also the price tags as well as the queue that one mentor was not enough to coach a learner in several subjects, rather there was demand for an individual teacher for each single subject.
Against this dropback, learners of marginal farmer families saw with awe that science was beyond their reach. Gradually, it was evidenced that science was something ordinary people could not afford to enjoy. And, what was alternative for them? Was it arts or humanities, as it was called alternatively, or commerce? The time says that it was obvious that learners of poorer families generally shifted their choice from science studies and opted for the two fields mentioned above for further learning. As a result, students lost interests in science, gradually but certainly.
Since its journey, Ahsan Ullah Engineering College, later named as Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, and other engineering colleges until 1990s, a few science students from villages who studied udy there became luminaires of the country. They ushered in hope for others in those days not only as scholars but also later as renowned professionals at home and abroad. People in general understood what a difference one鈥檚 knowledge of science could make both at individual level as well as at the collective, national level. But things did not shine so brightly with science as time elapsed.
There were competition, factional interest groups, resources constraints, social and political changes, affecting the overall landscape of science and scientific study and research. Newer institutions came up following the market demand. Quality was compromised, at times and ultimately leading to the phenomenon that BSc engineers stated to be disappointed to find fitting places to work.
This led to the diversion of choosing professions. Engineers began opting for civil service in general cadre such as administration or police or whatsoever. Nowadays, the Bangladesh Civil Services have been witnessing the induction of an increased number of BSc engineers from BUET, CKD-RUET and other private engineering institutions.
Besides, science students鈥� second choice in career path that is medical education has recently been facing a number of obstacles such as the dearth of adequate number of medical colleges with hospital facilities, poor quality in basic education, exorbitant cost of study and lack of employment and research for higher education.
It has been learnt that some private medical colleges demand that students should be allowed to get admission to private medical colleges having scores as low as 40 out of 100 marks in the admission test. Tussles with government to drive home their demands as the proprietors of private medical colleges complained for remaining vacant seats for admission into their prestigious seats of learning in the 鈥榥ewly opened horizon of medical education鈥� in Bangladesh from 2000 onwards.
What do all graduating scholars in science do after the completion of a strenuous course of five years? Is it not an overarching question? There is serious lack of authenticated data on science graduate placement in job market both in and outside the country. Till date, the internal demand and supply are unmatched for lack of business-academia engagement and coordination. On the other hand, thousands of graduates pass and join the market in search of a suitable employment.
Obviously, theoretical, classroom-based learning does not prepare them to find themselves employed in decent works and here begins a long-drawn, burdensome journey of shattered dreams. The story goes on and on, making a vicious circle 鈥� inadequate science teaching facility and lack of quality teacher and teaching 鈥� dwindling interest among learners and guardians about inadequate facility to work and research and lack of budgetary allocation and government investment in science education.
Besides, the lack of quality teachers in science worsens as the role of science teachers in schools and colleges are played down, demoralising the few competent teachers with public humiliation. The heroic action gets fuelled if the teacher belongs to a particular faith as Bangladesh has witnessed such incidences in recent past.
Brain drain, which became familiar term in 1988, sounds clich茅 nowadays, but this is a truism. Hundreds of BSc engineers leave for Europe, the United States and the United Ara Emirates in search of jobs and career building over there. Of them, some apply and qualify for higher studies in those welcoming lands. Once they get along and keep going, having adjusted with initial bumps and sighs such as cultural shock and the faintly beaconing memories of homeland left behind, they do not look back and ultimately settle down enjoying life out there.
Prioritising study in science in the entire education system decades earlier, many underdeveloped countries in South Asia has ripped the benefits of it as hundreds of IT and computer engineers placed themselves at the helm of scientific research and innovation in renowned places such as NASA. Our neighbouring country India is an illuminating instance in this regard. On the contrary, Bangladesh, adrift the swirling stream of Industrial Revolution 4.0, is facing challenges to teach basic skills such as driving a forklift, electrical welding, operating a washing machine or field mower to millions of aspirant migrants who need the know-how to work overseas to earn more money than they had been doing so far.
For nearly a decade, the people of Bangladesh have been bombarded with the rhetorics of billions of dollars of revenue from IT sector software exports as there had been numerous large-scale projects in this sector. Thousands of acres of cultivable lands were acquired and millions of dollars were spent on erecting colossal buildings and purchasing equipment and tools. But all development hypes gave birth to nothing. Dozens of barren IT parks stand all in Dhaka, Jessore, Sylhet and other places, signifying nothing.
As the most densely populated country in the world and with hardly any mineral resources left underground, Bangladesh needs to decide whether it would transform the teeming millions into beaming citizens with scientific knowledge and decent jobs to live in or just remain complacent with nearly two million certificates and degree holders in various disciplines, from arts, commerce passing out of colleges, universities and madrassahs mushroomed across the country, annually contributing to the ever increasing jobless multitude.
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Md Mukhlesur Rahman Akand is joint secretarym expatriates鈥� welfare and overseas employment ministry.