The government is investing in specialized education so that no one is unemployed after graduation, Deputy Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury has said.
The deputy minister was speaking at an international seminar, titled “UN Decade of Ocean Science - Imperatives for Bangladesh”, organized by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Maritime University (BSMRMU) in Dhaka on Thursday.
“The government is not investing in higher education institutions for mass education, it is investing in specialized education.
“When higher education turns into mass education, it causes great harm to students instead of making them skilled. For example, a student is forced to choose a life of idleness and unemployment because he cannot acquire any skills with ordinary higher education,” he said.
Referring to Bangabandhu's education policy, Mohibul said it included specialized and vocational education, and research institutes.
The Qudrat-e-Khuda Education Commission also had an excellent plan to promote higher education with four general and one specialized university, he added.
But ignoring these policies an out-of-control higher education sector had emerged, the deputy minister remarked.
He said those who had taken office to gain popularity were either ignoring those policies or not paying attention to them.
He also noted that there were more discussions at educational institutions about promotion and facilities instead of quality of education.
Putting emphasis on giving priority to specialized education, the deputy minister said there was a tendency to establish science and technology universities only in name, “which offer neither science nor technology education”.
But higher education institutions should aim to increase their quality of education so that they could create a skilled workforce that would lead the way nationally and globally.
Mohibul said if BSMRMU wanted to be successful in the blue economy it should take a leadership role, and its students should take care to engage in policy leadership.
BSMRMU Vice Chancellor Rear Admiral (retd) M Khaled Iqbal, and maritime experts and academics from India, Portugal, Netherlands and England were also present at the seminar.
A special publication titled “An Illustrative Journal on Ocean Science” was unveiled on the occasion.
