December 04, 2004

INT'L EDUCATION FARE - SUPPORTING EXPORT OF MANPOWER?

In general, there are two categories of students in Bangladesh who go for higher study in abroad. In one category are the brilliant students, who have quest for higher study in many fields, which are not available in the country. They get good scholarships because of their merit and they usually end up living abroad (call it brain drain) as there is little scope for job for those degree holders in the still developing industries of Bangladesh. And those scientists who want to devote themselves for research, Bangladesh would not be the best place for them. The other category of students have rich parents but not enough brilliance to get admitted in best local universities through competition. So they look for some small US or Australian colleges to be admitted and land on those countries and in most of the cases they do not finish their study. For them the achievement in life would be migration to a developed country as usually their relatives rarely ask about what are they doing abroad. In reality they might be earning their living by waiting or doing some other petty jobs but they will boast of being something else to their keens back in the country.

A recently concluded education fare in Dhaka shows how many are keen to study abroad. My point is who is determining the quality of the educational institutes who are trying to get students from Bangladesh. I wouldn't mind if those Bangladeshis were going to Oxford, Yale etc. places. As per my knowledge the low category international educational institutes try to obtain students on the basis of money, but not merit. Is education a commodity? Isn't there enough private education institutions cropping up in Bangladesh to cope the increasing demand. Many of these institutions, I believe give good education and are feasible for parents. So why is that rush to go abroad? Is this another way to exploit poor people's money by those institute or a ploy of the local agents to export manpower in disguise?

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