DEVELOPMENT, for which people all over the world invest their labour and talent, has different connotations from social and political viewpoints. Apparently the meaning of development varies from country to country based on populace, literacy, employment status, technological adaptation, status of human rights and so forth. Education undeniably is regarded as the most important element of development.
It is a pleasure for us that the rate of education in our country has been rising at a good pace for the last few decades. Here the government's motivational and financial initiatives for development of education are playing a vital role. Besides, being educated is important but without acquiring sufficient knowledge at every level of educational life, education becomes meaningless and very often a burden for students and the nation. The education system in our country is neither ancient nor obsolete and it is even better than the western system of education system in some respect. But the basic difference is that while educational institutions are considered centres of acquiring knowledge and brainstorming in western countries, in our country it is looked upon as hubs of acquiring academic certificates.
Teachers, guardians and students themselves are not too worried about the knowledge acquired in exchange for time, money and labour. All of us, educated or uneducated, are always eager to hear about excellent results based on grade point average (GPA) and not talents. From educational institution to corporate level, the applicants are judged on the basis of their academic results and knowledge or quality is ignored. It has sometimes appeared that the golden A+ holders do not have minimum knowledge of their own subjects. Lots of reasons are responsible for this. Students are reluctant to study more due to malpractices in everywhere. They know very well that knowledge cannot ensure job without bribe, political influence and nepotism. And even questions leak in public exams has become rampant for years and regrettably teachers, guardians, students, government officials all are reportedly involved in this destructive activity.
However, short sightedness of guardians and their unquestionable yarning for good marks have led us to a situation where knowledge acquired is least valued. On the other hand, tuition business of the teachers is roaring. It has become an unacceptable suicidal reality in our education sector that learners are indifferent to be knowledgeable or talent. These malpractices from different angles will be strong enough to destroy the dream of our motherland to become resourceful in talent and efficient manpower.
It cannot be said that result is not important but the selection mechanism for schools, colleges, universities and even for jobs should be based more on talent than mere results in academic education. If we put more emphasis on talents or sagacity or creativity of students it will be more effective for boosting students' eagerness for learning, to reduce malpractices in the education sector, corruption and nepotism in the employment arena.
If today we keep increasing literacy rate as our priority in the education sector without creating specified talent hubs in different fields, we shall lag behind in this competitive global environment for a long time from fulfilling our development dreams.
Md Farid Hossain Talukder
Texas A&M University, USA
[email protected]
