Linking development to education

In this regard, Bangladesh appears to be one of the most pathetic examples of how efforts of all types can painfully turn into futility unless priorities are determined and infrastructures for development are created at the right time. The situation prevailing in the country for the last thirty-five years is an example in point. During the Pakistani days, education was considered to be a low priority sector and therefore investments were very meagre in this sector. Primary as well as adult education was largely neglected. The insignificant increase in literacy rate over the years has been offset by the high population increase and therefore instead of increasing the literacy rate it has declined in absolute terms. And this situation has wrought disaster for us creating a vicious circle which is difficult to break. The great mass of illiterates is going on producing an ever-increasing number of children who remain illiterate, because their parents do not the minimum of awareness and education to see the value of education and send their children to school.

It is a great pity that at the moment we have about 60 per cent illiteracy in Bangladesh which is one of the highest in the region. It may be mentioned here that our neighbouring countries having similar social conditions are much better off in this regard.

It has been established beyond doubt by research studies both by economists and educationists that there is a direct correlation between the level of education and per capita income. Education, at least the minimum of it, has great potential in making a person self-reliant. The concept of self-reliance as we often hear in Bangladesh is a misnomer. Here it is used to mean self-reliance that is imposed from above. Unfortunately, this is no self-reliance but it is simple spoon-feeding and paternalism which tend to increase the dependence of the people on its government for every thing. It seems that this situation is being perpetuated in Bangladesh hindering the process of making a breakthrough in self-reliance in the true sense of the tern.

The following data on the rate of literacy and per capita income of some third world countries bear testimony to the fact that education is a necessary pre-condition for development processes of all kinds.

Table showing literacy and per capita income in some selected countries:

It is no wonder that Bangladesh appears at the bottom of the list put in order either of literacy rate or the per capita income. It is worthwhile to note that some of our closest neighbours, such as Burma, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand are doing much better. Once the people of these countries are educated and possess the needed awareness the development process will become self-propelling which situation is completely absent in our country and it is not likely that a self-propelling system of development can be established in Bangladesh within the foreseeable future. This may sound very pessimistic and may dampen the spirit of many enthusiasts who believe in top-down model of development process. But this is not going to work simply because those at whom it is aimed at are in total darkness and are prepared educationally to understand the probably benefits. Now the question arises whether all hopes are lost. Actually still there is time to make a serious effort to correct the imbalance by giving emphasis to primary and adult education.

A country with an illiterate mass of 60 million people can hardly expect to go far. It has already been mentioned that the absolute number of illiterates is increasing every year due to non-enrolment of primary age-group children in schools as well as heavy dropouts from them. So illiteracy has become endemic, so to say, in our society which is preventing voluntary participation by the people in the nation-building programmes initiated by the government.

In order to improve the situation, management and quality of teaching in our 70,000 or so primary schools should be greatly improved so that dropouts can be substantially reduced from the present 60-70 per cent between class I and II. Supervision of the schools should be seriously taken up so that minimum quality of education can be ensured for those children who do enroll there. Untrained teachers should be trained within the shortest possible time through crash programmes organised at the PTI's throughout the country. The curriculum should be reviewed and made relevant and functional to the conditions of life and living of the society and environment in which the children live.

The illiterate parents are not likely to understand the value of education. So they are unwilling to send their children to school and keep them there until they become functionally literate. Of course extreme poverty of the parents is one of the basic causes for this situation. Parents should be given some sort of economic relief in the form of free books, clothing and supplies for their children's education. No doubt, this is going to call for heavy investment and may be hard on the government for the present but it will bring manifold benefits leading to a multiplier effect in ushering in a self-sustaining society of people ready to do everything to improve their own lot.

Dr Ashraf Ali is professor and Director, IER, Dhaka University.