Most English medium students, after graduating from high school, are caught up in the fear created by the challenge posed by public universities. Consequently, even the most meritorious students are deceived by the usual propaganda and are allured to try for good scores in various overseas universities’ prerequisite tests such as IELTS, SAT, TOEFL, etc. Some of them even decide to join private universities without properly going through their best options.
In our country, it’s a common myth that English medium students do not do well when competing against students tied to the national curriculum, and even a lot of guardians choose to believe that myth. This article is designed to address and counter that myth. First of all, it is not true that English medium students cannot do well against national level students; currently, approximately 100 students from English medium backgrounds are studying in different departments of BUET, belonging to different batches. There is also an association in BUET called English Medium BUETians’ Association which consists of all O/A Level graduate BUETians.
The founder of this association, Lincon Sarker, shared a few words with us: “After our A Levels, we had to make a choice, to either attempt for public universities or to apply overseas, but we chose to stay because we believed that our public universities, such as Dhaka University, BUET, RUET, CHUET, SUST, have all the facilities to ensure great quality undergraduate education. Although, we did have to work very hard to get in, the hard work was well worth the reward once we were selected. We realised that after our A levels, that we have made the right decision.” Additionally, he talked about the great edge that English medium students receive over Bengali medium students in admission test questions since at places like BUET, the questions are very conceptual, much like what you will find in any O/A level examination paper.
There’s also a misconception among the people in our country that education overseas is somehow better than national level undergraduate education. In case of the quality that is delivered by public universities such as BUET, DU, JU, RUET, IUT, KUET and many more, one has to say that they are very much mistaken. There are numerous students with national level undergraduate backgrounds who are now completing their graduate studies from places such as MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, Princeton, Yale, Cambridge, Oxford with full scholarships. Only in BUET, the percentage of students moving abroad to complete their graduate studies after receiving full or partial scholarships is approximately a staggering 70 percent!
After completion of their A levels, students (mainly pointed to the children from elite families dwelling in our society) are seemed to face a very tough decision regarding the choice of university. Every year, there are numerous candidates with straight As in all subjects. A humorous fact is, most of the decisions of these meritorious students end up with them either boarding a flight abroad or get into private universities. Institutions like BUET or DU are not even on their choice list while a very few students, indeed negligible, are putting up an effort for the enrollment in public universities.
From my personal experience, many among us with English medium backgrounds do always have to face a question - are we actually capable of getting enrolled in public universities? To me, it’s honestly humiliating when someone doubts their capabilities.
I do recall when my father used to pinch and compare me with his colleague’s son: “Look, he is in Dhaka Medical College.” My uncle used to tease, “Can you even compete with the 50,000 students out there sitting for DU?” I couldn’t answer any of these questions back then. Nothing in this world is so pitiful as being mute in reply to such questionnaire. But yes, now I do have an answer. Surprisingly, the very first call I made was to my uncle after I secured a place in the merit list in the BUET entrance exam.
Now here comes the part of motivation. Do you know the current number of students in BUET? The number is 102 in five batches, and almost 160 if we include alumni. Record says 12, 14, 19, 23 and 26 students from their consecutive 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 batches secured merits among the 998 selected every year. Take Dhaka University and the rest out of the equation, for their numbers are even higher.
Recently, almost 24 students from 15 batches have received their entrance tickets into BUET with outstanding performance on their written exams, while the topper among the English medium batch secured the 36th rank. 24 sounds minute, I understand, but it really isn’t compared to the number of students who had actually prepared themselves for the entrance exam. A source from Sunrise Coaching Center disclosed that last year, they guided 150 students, out of which 44 were eligible to sit for the BUET entrance exam and 24 students among them came out with a positive outcome, while the rest secured their places in Dhaka University and IUT. Calculate again, for that’s a 54 percent success rate. And this is happening only because we do have a strong base in our curriculum and methods of study.
To sum it up, it is indeed a myth that public universities are not for English medium students. What you need is the required results, proper guidance, patience and most of all, passion and inspiration that will drive you to achieve the desired accomplishment. Think it through before you make the seemingly hard choices, whether it’s home or abroad.
