In what almost seems like another life, I used to teach at a university in Bangladesh. In fact, since my first semester of college in Fall 2002, I have spent pretty much all my life on some college campus or another. This has given me the opportunity to form some opinions and ideas about a college education in general, and in Bangladesh in particular.
This is on my mind because a couple of days ago I was a silent observer of a social media debate about the cost of education in Bangladesh today. One comment I found rather tone-deaf bothered me, but true to my recent decision to not engage in social media debates, I refrained from making a comment. However, I feel like I still need to express my thoughts on the issue, if just to see whether opinions I formed as a teacher some ten years ago, still make sense.
The comment that bothered me was someone saying that even private universities in Bangladesh are not that expensive if one thinks of them as an investment in one’s own future. While I agree that education is possibly the best investment one can make, I was not convinced. Further down the thread, this person then claimed that in Dhaka today, any student can take on a few tutoring gigs that are more than enough to pay off tuition even at the most premier private universities. As I said, I did not want a social media debate first thing in the morning. But I fear that comment betrays a lack of awareness of the issues many college students in Bangladesh face.
First of all, I am not at all convinced that tutoring jobs that pay off the hefty semester fees in most universities are that easy to come by. Certainly one cannot expect to do so on the basis of a single student. More commonly they have to take on multiple students. But for the while, I am happy to assume that some number of such students does in fact bring in a lot of money. I contend that this still does not provide a level playing field for students who must earn their tuition fees in such a manner.
Assuming that the student in question has all their other expenses paid for, they still have to put in the hours at their tutoring job. Being of lower value compared to many school teachers who also go into private tutoring, they cannot expect the students to come to them. Instead, our student must commute to each job, often to multiple locations on the same day. I sincerely hope a Dhaka resident does not have to be told how much commuting costs, in both time and finances. This is money that must be deducted from any earnings they bring in at the end of the month.
More importantly, the time that all this takes up, must be deducted from the time available to them to spend on schoolwork. Education is certainly an investment. However, the returns on this investment are highly correlated with the grades acquired, the knowledge earned, and the level of skill a college graduate is able to exhibit. In my teaching career, I met no small number of students who are in classes till 5 pm, followed by multiple tutoring jobs, and are not home until much later in the evening. Of course, I had to make the exact same demands of hours spent on homework from this student, and the one whose parents picked him up right after class and who got to spend the entire evening doing whatever they wish to. Including, at times, homework. This is not fair, but nor do I know how it can be made fair. What I do know is that the latter student had time to finish all their work, and then read ahead if they wanted to. Or pursue a project they are passionate about.
This brings me to my next point. I have a background in computing, and I used to get my fair share of freshmen who would ask advice on how they can get one of the high-paying jobs with a major tech giant. I tried my best to counsel them, and it usually took the form of getting good grades, working on their programming skills, and getting as much practical experience as possible. As people from a CS background will know, getting practical experience is possible by participating in different contests and also contributing to online coding communities. Guess how one does that?
If you guessed that it takes a lot of training, getting really good at mastering fundamentals, and then spending long hours working on a computer, you are right. Of the two types of students, I mentioned above, which one do you think has the long stretches of spare time to spend on such goals? Which one will see better returns on the investment of education you so eloquently -- and patronizingly -- offer?
In the seven years I taught in Bangladesh, not a semester went by without meeting a student with the financial and scheduling challenges I have alluded to here. People handing out sage social media advice of “just work harder” need to step outside their ivory tower, and maybe spend a semester teaching in any university in Bangladesh. If you are unwilling to do so, ease up on advice that amounts to “have you tried not being poor?” Oh and by the way, all of the above was assuming that the student is just trying to earn his tuition fees. Someday, I will tell you about the ones who lost the primary breadwinner of the family and need to earn their rent. I hope you are ready.
Hammad Ali is a PhD student and lover of fountain pens
