We need to return to the basics
In education, both the teacher and the taught feel that imparting of too much information and doing a lot of things determine the quality of education. Most students in Bangladesh write pages and pages of answers, containing just a mere reproduction of class notes or notes from guides without any kind of analysis, synthesis, knowledge integration and application to practical situations. Our governance is ridden with heaps and heaps of paperwork, endless meetings and unimaginable formalities seldom found in progressive countries.
The ramifications of this collective phenomenon of overdoing everything can be observed at various levels, in areas of mundane daily living to more complex societal phenomena. I have been watching a particular trend among small businesses, large corporate houses and even educational institutions, service industries and, to some extent, even among government offices. Among educational institutions, a similar thing happens when schools and colleges mushroom in particular localities offering more or less the same types of courses, competing with one another. Service industries are no better either.
Specifically, in economic policies and programmes, we find an over-emphasis on growth, which is just an indication of doing much quantitatively without being able to achieve inclusive and sustainable development. What we fail to understand is that we need to return to the basics concentrating on the quality rather than quantity of anything.
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