Let tech-savvy youth build prosperous Bangladesh

A significant proposition to materialise a trending and market-oriented education system was made at a webinar on 15 July, on the necessity of skills for a future preparedness, jointly organised by Grameenphone and UNDP to mark the World Youth Skills Day.

Several seminars discussed about the importance of such an education system times previously. Experts and entrepreneurs put emphasis on a modern and technology-based education.

However, the policy and planning on education as well as the national curriculum barely acknowledge this necessity.

We have inherited a colonial British-era education system that only produces clerks. As a result, thousands of young graduates from the mushrooming educational institutions are left unemployed every year.

Bangladesh can meet little of the demands for human resources in local and global markets. While the educated young people remain jobless, skilled professionals from abroad are being recruited for managerial jobs in different sectors in the country

Not only in the industrial or corporate sector, the country lacks skilled human resources also in health and some other service sectors. The coronavirus pandemic has deepened the importance of technology-based commerce, education and communications.

Every year, Bangladesh sees the entry of more than 2.2 million young people–some of them are educated–into the labour market. However, the sort of educated they have received hardly can meet the contemporary demands.

An Economist Intelligence Unit report, published in 2014, ranks Bangladesh as a largest home to unemployed graduates. It cannot be claimed that the situation has not improved much in last six years.

Around 33 per cent of population in Bangladesh is youth. If we can assist the young people to get suitable jobs, they will contribute in the country’s development and prosperity. They will get opportunities to uplift their life standard. If we fail to help them work, they will be left as burden to the society. The investments by the families and the state for their education will be futile.

To increase the youths’ skills, helping them adapt to technologies is a must. In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, every moment of human activities including the industrial one is dependent on technology. Application of technologies, particularly at agriculture, market and education sectors, is gaining ground globally.

No matter how much we have campaigned for a ‘Digital Bangladesh’, in reality we have failed to show much progress. Albeit the educational institutions have shifted to online classroom during the pandemic, only a few students are benefited by the new system.

The top policymakers often appear vocal about building a Digital Bangladesh. They try to make us dream of Vision 2041. But we cannot find a roadmap for building Digital Bangladesh. They forget that only distribution of computerts among the educational institutions (many of the institutions do not have skilled people to operate the computers) does not help adapt a technology-oriented education system.

There is no alternative to extension and accessibility for technologies to develop skills of youths in the era of the fourth industrial revolution.