Every generation has its distinct characteristics, inclusive of qualities and limitations, but the contemporaries cannot always be conscious of themselves. Are the tech-savvy youth of present Bangladesh fully aware of what they need to do to grow? This question should be aimed more at their teachers, guardians and seniors than the innocent boys and girls who are yet to 'know thyself'.
Dismissing both pampering for and cynical attitude towards the youth, they may be asked to grab new opportunities, coping with unprecedented challenges of their times. 'Go by the trends', 'Be entrepreneurs', and 'Forget textbooks' are some of the derivative discourses that 'trendy' youngsters have taken as a mantra.
Proof: Many university students these days don't possess or borrow a single textbook as they simply imitate power-point presentations made in the classes.
The nation has reasons to be anxious if our students are being ill-advised about the future which is never a certain one. Instead of telling them to be qualified and versatile, they are being intimidated by talks of dominance of robots, which protagonists forecast, would make millions of humans redundant in the job market. Beyond the policymakers' notice, jobs and entrepreneurship have already been intertwined worldwide!
Today's youths are hardly being motivated to overcome artificial intelligence, which is actually borrowed from human beings' great strides and fights on earth.
Instead, the youth are being brought up in such a manner that most of them, if not all, speak a monotonous language, follow the same 'out of the box' thinking process and act in a similar fashion, all that which lack reflections of individual uniqueness and independent thinking. Isn't it plagiarism of another kind? Instead of trying to beat the stupid machine and demystify algorithm of search engines, many people are turning into human robots, basically servants of lifeless bosses.
Some motivational speakers, posing as advisers to the youth of global Bangladesh, have forgotten that 2+2 is still equal to 4, not 22, and 's' has to be used for framing a sentence with third person, singular number, a linguistic agreement which remains valid for generations. Such knowledge is of textbook, which not only offers basics of diverse subjects but also guides students with theoretical understanding of issues throughout their life. A university is not meant for producing thoughtless slaves of technology.
Even if a better job is a major target of higher education, students need to be properly educated in the first place, education that makes individuals different from others, not for the sake of making an arrogant character but for serving society.
A few Bangladeshi youth, through their creative ventures, have proved their problem-solving capacity - one of the buzzwords of the day. These accomplishments are far below the talents of the region's Bohemian minds as admired by Bill Gates. Opportunities elude many promising youth while brains of some others perish in an atmosphere that hardly promotes fair play and healthy competition for selecting leaders and hiring people.
Of course, some fighters come out successful overcoming all barriers to growth in society but not everybody can do so. Poor education of any form cannot create a great man who can change his/her surroundings. Parochial learning of only information technology, for example, as often recommended, will not build prudent citizens of tomorrow, unless they embrace universal education for realising human potential. That's true also for hundreds of thousands in this country of young people.
Thinking and aspirations of Bangladesh's current and upcoming generations (children) are yet to be studied carefully. Prescriptions for them can be readied based on their needs if assessed and past experiences counted. Their dreams can't be confused with necessity of giving them basic education to help them discover their world.