Quality of higher education
Photo: Bayazid Akter / Driknews
This refers to an international conference held at Dhaka University last week where the participants stressed the need for improving the contents and teaching methods. They emphasized the need for promoting the research works through collaboration between the professionals in the international arena. The world around us has changed dramatically. But our higher education continues to operate in the old policy frame. There is a need for a major paradigm shift in this sector which would not happen with small incremental and unrelated changes here and there. The improvement in the quality of education requires modernization of the system physical infrastructure, intellectual resources, quality of teachers and pedagogical practices. This needs a large-scale investment. In order to impart a democratic character, the primary requirement is adequate number of institutions, particularly in the rural areas. A matter of worry among educationists appears to be the declining quality of higher education. It is no secret that curricula have almost remained unchanged for decades, have not kept pace with the times, let alone with the extending frontiers of knowledge. If an egalitarian society is to be realised, as envisioned in the constitution, the state has to intervene in a more decisive manner to control the private agencies to ensure a system of education informed by social justice and equity. In fact, they are the core values that education should uphold. Despite possible resistance from vested interests, both academic and entrepreneurial, the state has to chart out a new path that would usher in a modern system which is secular in content, democratic in practice and interdisciplinary in method.
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