The prime minister’s move to inaugurate 11 new medical colleges, along with plans of setting up one university in each division of the country is a commendable initiative.
Not only does this stand to make sorely needed improvements in our higher education infrastructure, it may alleviate many of the nation’s problems by encouraging decentralisation.
We need to focus on improving our university and college system in every way we can, but the plans should include taking some pressure off our congested capital city.
Universities in every division would mean meritorious students with high potential do not all have to flock to Dhaka.
Many of our private universities have already proven a worthy alternative to public education. However, we cannot ignore the need for accessible medical colleges in other parts of the country.
Bangladesh, because of its population, has a high demand for medical professionals. It follows, then, that we need more medical colleges. As of now there are 29 public and 54 private medical colleges in the country, but this number is not adequate.
High quality accessible education is an economic priority for the nation and is one of the key challenges for the government in 2015. Higher education outside of Dhaka has been suffering because qualified teachers are reluctant to leave the capital to work.
It is time to combat this problem of over-centralisation, and invest in facilities that make it attractive to teach and study outside of Dhaka.
