It is learnt from a national daily news paper that the government has formed a ten-member committee headed by Prime Minister’s Education, Social Development and Political Affairs Adviser Dr. Alauddin Ahmed to formulate a concrete policy for MPO allocation and enlistment of new educational institutions. As a senior citizen in an independent country as well as a teacher (with experience of teaching at primary and secondary schools, private and government colleges, science and technology universities in various capacities for more than four decades at home and abroad), I believe, I have every right to comment and suggest the decision makers on educational resource development in the country.
Recent participation in the International Conference on Open Educational Resources (OER) held 7-10 June 2009 at Maastricht, Netherlands has encouraged me much to criticize and make comments on education resources any where in the globe. It was a unique event for transformation of education from traditional to modern system i.e, shifting face to face education to virtual education. The UNESCO, Commonwealth of Learning and the Open University Netherlands jointly organized the event where senior academics particularly Vice-Chancellors from all over the world were invited to make their comments on different issues. We were given the liberty to make comments and criticize in any language we liked. It is a real freedom of an educator, scientist or researcher. The organizer gave handsome amount in the form of M-2009 Fellowships and hourly remuneration for the criticisms or finding faults or possible hazards in new systems. The comments and suggestions will be further discussed and reviewed at the UNESCO Head Quarter France in the coming month July 2009.
Bangladesh is not different from other countries in respect of making faults or mistakes.
MPO (monthly payment order) is a part of development in education through educators. A real teacher has the right to enjoy the benefits. So far I have learnt only a certain percentage of schools and colleges are going to be enlisted in the MPO. Who are those lucky teachers? How they will be selected -- that is the main question. Two different groups of “Have” and “Have Nots” will be created. Some teachers will enjoy better life and for others, life will become hell. The school authority of “have nots” will lose their students, teachers and self-confidences. There are instances of teaching for more than ten years without remuneration in schools and colleges in the remote areas. Many institutes are doing tremendous results in board examinations at general and technical educations. That becomes possible due to sacrifice of the young and energetic teachers.They work under guidelines of the founder who is normally well educated and technically qualified. Unfortunately, the institutes are normally not enlisted in MPO. Neither any minister nor adviser has ever visited those institutes. It is really difficult for the decision makers to realize the exact situation without physical visits to the institutes and the localities.
We cannot deny that we were born in villages and we should not forget the local cultures, and their sufferings just because of lack of education, and ignorance. We should be grateful to them because they produce food that enables us to take at luxury hotels or restaurants. They expect some returns or real justifications at least in education sector.
Most schools and colleges in the country were born under political auspices in last two decades. But still there are some institutes that were established by the talents and dedicated people who sincerely want to help develop his region or community. There are people who have money as well as wisdom, education, knowledge, skills, honesty and vision. They feel very much for their community or village where he was born. He wants to utilize his talents, skills and vision for upgrading the life style of people through proper and effective education. But to do so, a platform like school or college becomes very essential. A school is composed of students, teachers, rooms or house, chair, bench etc. Even then it is not a school. It needs affiliation from the government to make education authentic. That means sincere cooperation from the government becomes very important at this stage. Enlistment of MPO is a part of such activities. I believe the committee members are well educated, experienced and well aware of the social problems and needs. They will surely give importance to issues mentioned.
As founder of a technical institute in one of the remotest areas in Bangladesh, I have got immense scopes of studying the people of remote and isolated areas and the activities of government towards the remote people for the last ten years. The support or cooperation from government was very much disappointing. It is really painful for the social workers.
A school or institute is not just a platform to educate and to give a certificate to students. An institute particularly technical or vocational institute can bring a tremendous change in remote communities. It enables them to earn reasonable amount through utilization of technical knowledge which they gain from the institute and from their guardians who are well experienced in local and traditional technologies. There are huge scopes of doing research on the issue and lots to learn from such activities. The ideas are well accepted in international markets or events held at different continents. But the ideas or lessons are very rarely accepted or recognized by the policy makers in the country. The initiative of establishing a vocational or technical institute in remote areas can be the best way to change people, community or society as the present government wants a CHANGE at all levels.
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