There is no denying that Bangladesh has a pertinent unemployment issue for a long time. Because the issue is more structural than we may think. Technical and Vocational Education is a way out of the chronic unemployment issue.
Bangladesh, being one of the most populous countries in the world, currently has a surplus of graduates due to the fact that general education has been more or less accessible to the masses. This has led to a difficult situation overall as a lot of graduates have become unable to land jobs as per their requirements, and as per a 2017 report by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), about 66 percent of these graduates are unemployed.
1.2 Million
Students appeared in the Higher Secondary Exam
0.12 Million
Students under the Technical Education Board
1 Million
Students under the General Education Boards
Last year above 1.2 million students appeared at the higher secondary certificate examination, of whom 0.12 million students appeared in the examination under the Technical Education Board. Whereas around 1 million students appeared in the examination under 9 general education boards.
Number of Seats in Undergraduate Education in Bangladesh
Source: Bangladesh Education Statistics 2021
No Data Found
According to the Bangladesh Education Statistics 2021, the number of seats for first-year students in 49 public universities is 51,152 only, and 2,38,323 in 107 private universities. Where do the rest of the high school graduates go? Different colleges under the national university, totaling above 1.1 million seats altogether. If we dissect the enrollment in different colleges under the National University, we can figure out a pattern.
Seats for Undergraduate Enrolment in National University
Source: Bangladesh Education Statistics 2021
No Data Found
As it is visible from the data provided by Bangladesh Education Statistics, only 0.2 million students enrolled from science background under the national university, a staggering 0.86 million students enrolled from arts and humanities backgrounds. So, there is an industry-academia mismatch between the priorities. Whereas 0.86 million students are choosing arts and humanities majors for higher studies under the national university, out of roughly 1.2 million high school graduates, it is evident that Bangladesh needs more people who are adept in science and technology.
However, there is a ray of hope in this regard, as technical and vocational education in the last few years has been rising as a viable alternative in the context of our country, with this phenomenon receiving adequate backing from the government as well. Participation in technical and vocational education has risen from 1 percent to 15 percent in the last two decades, and Bangladesh, being a country with a large demographic dividend, has immense potential when it comes to equipping the population with the skills necessary to tackle the challenges of the future through technical and vocational education. A significant portion of the roughly 0.86 million arts and humanities majors in Bangladesh’s colleges could be diverted to take on the seemingly unconventional route of studying diploma degrees in science and technology, by creating more polytechnic institutions throughout the country.
A Brief History and Overview
The importance of technical and vocational education started to be felt throughout the world after the Second World War. In Bangladesh, the first initiatives towards the inception of formal technical education started during Pakistani rule in 1967 through the promulgation of an act to create the technical education board. At present, there are about 49 government polytechnic institutions in the country, as well as 387 private polytechnics. Other than this, there are many specialised institutions that are dedicated to the dissemination of technical education in various fields.
Unlike the traditional education system, which focuses mostly on getting good grades, technical and vocational education have a completely different approach that focuses mostly on the capacity building of individuals in order to furnish them with skills that are essential in the economy, rather than focusing on textbook-oriented conventional education. The government of Bangladesh had a goal of making 20 percent of the population take up technical education, which they have been largely successful in achieving.
Most of the developed countries in the world have a very strong stream of technical and vocational education and have bolstered the stream with every passing decade. Highly industrialised countries like the USA, Germany, South Korea, and Japan, among others, have very comprehensive programmes that are designed to provide the population with technical education, as well as the fact that there is little to no stigmatisation in these countries when it comes to this regard. For example, specialised trade schools in the USA often guarantee better earnings as well as higher social status in American society than a university degree.
Decentralization of Technical Education
The current government of Bangladesh has a vision of ‘Digital Bangladesh’ with the goal of upgrading to ‘Smart Bangladesh’, something that is focused on making Bangladesh a highly industrialised country with advanced technology, and this goal is not achievable in any way without a large number of Bangladeshis being equipped with proper technical and vocational education. The government has already taken initiatives worth 27 thousand crore taka in the proliferation of technical education and also has plans to create a technical education training centre in all the upazilas of the country.
Increasing Capacity
The government of Bangladesh has also undertaken decisions to create a lot of institutions throughout the country that will cater to the needs of this century, as technical schools, colleges, and polytechnic institutions are to be built across every corner of the country.
Capacity of Technical Schools Increased to 57780 Seats
From 12500 Seats
Available number of seats for enrolment in the polytechnic institutes have been increased to 57780 from 12500 in order to accommodate more students in technical and vocational education programs.
Familiarizing with Technical Education
Even in the generalised curriculum formulated by the NCTB, more and more lessons pertaining to technical education are being included so that students who are obtaining nontechnical education also get vocational skills that will be handy and effective for them in their work lives. Steps are also being undertaken so that the existing curriculum of technical education is aligned with the needs of the industries.
Collaboration with Multilateral Organizations
The government is also working in order to involve various national and international organisations to increase their linkage in the propagation of technical and vocational education in the country. For example – The Skills and Training Enhancement Project is being implemented with the with the support of World Bank.
Increasing Technical Literacy
The government of Bangladesh has ICT-industry promotion as one of the four pillars of Digital Bangladesh, which has seen about 16 thousand entrepreneurs working throughout the country in 8 thousand 800 digital centres, of whom more than 50 percent are women, which are the fruits of effective policies in improving the technical literacy of the Bangladeshi population, something that was unimaginable even 20 years ago as the digital centres are spread throughout the country.
Emphasis on Policies
The National Education Policy 2010 was formed by emphasising the TVET (Technical and Vocational Education and Training) project as well as the National Skills Development Policy in the following year. These policies were to rethink changing labour market dynamics as well as to focus more on technical and vocational education for marginalised people in order to equip them with the skills needed to give them appropriate economic mobility.
The efforts undertaken by the government have already been recognised and applauded worldwide, as the Prime Minister received the ‘Champion of Skill Development for Youth’ award for Bangladesh’s success in youth skill development from UNICEF, which connotes the government’s commitment to the upskilling of Bangladeshi youth with technical education.
Remittance Earnings
It is estimated that the current remittance earnings of Bangladesh will increase by five times if the workers are skilled, as currently most of the Bangladeshi workers in the Middle East are low-skilled.
Remittance Earnings
The government is also placing special emphasis on technical and vocational education due to the fact that the 100 Special Economic Zones planned by the government will require a lot of ‘technical hands‘, a need that can only be fulfilled if the population is bestowed with proper technical education.
Policy Recommendations
Eliminating Social Stigma
Despite all these positives, there is an elephant in the room that can overshadow the aspect of prospering in proliferating technical education: the stigmatisation of technical education that is persistent throughout the country, as technical degree holders are often deemed less intelligent and less educated. Although the situation has improved a lot, awareness has to be created both at the state level and at the non-governmental level in order to totally eradicate the stigma, as it might act as the most significant impediment in attracting more and more Bangladeshi youth towards technical and vocational education.
Knowledge Sharing
More effective cooperation and knowledge sharing in the fields of technical and vocational education have to be created with the highly developed countries in the world in order to yield more employment-focused results in the fields of technical education.
Industry-Academia Linkage
Industry-Academia linkage has to be created and emphasised even in the nontechnical fields so that the graduates get more exposure to industry and garnish themselves with skills essential in their work life before graduating. It has to be made sure that higher education becomes more practical than the textbook-oriented rote learning approach that is persistent in the universities of the country, and steps in overhauling the university curricula have to be undertaken with this goal in mind.
Further Upgradation
The developed countries in the world have a ratio of general education to technical education of 40:60. Steps should be undertaken from the grassroots of the country so that we can achieve this ratio in the next few years, which requires both advocacy and implementation.
Focusing on Research
Research in the technical fields should be encouraged as well as subsidised at the state level. Students interested in and highly proficient in technical research fields have to be awarded appropriate incentives in order to encourage innovations in these fields, which will further strengthen our economy and play a role in transitioning the overall status of the financial system.
Upgrading Infrastructure
Without creating appropriate infrastructure for the technical and vocational educational institutions of Bangladesh, it is not totally possible to impart quality technical education. Hence, improving the overall infrastructure as well as eradicating supply-side constraints remain some of the challenges that need to be implemented with initiatives taken both at the level of the government and non-government organisations.
Replicating Successful Models
Bangladesh can benefit massively by emulating policies taken by countries that have already succeeded in implementing a comprehensive technical and vocational education programme, albeit with appropriate cultural contexts being considered and taken into account. For example, South Korea has actively implemented an industry linkage with their vocational education programmes, which has contributed to the rapid enhancement of their educational standards as well as training. South Korea also utilised a World Bank loan worth $100 million, which happened to be the Bank’s first operation in the educational sector. It supported the technical educational institutions of Korea and transformed the sector by making it aligned with the skills that are in high demand in the labour market. South Korea went from a massively dilapidated war-torn country to one of the four Asian tigers, and a lot of credit has to be given to the initiatives undertaken by the Korean government to augment and disseminate technical education, something that Bangladesh can emulate.
Bangladesh has witnessed astonishing economic growth in the past decade, and in order to strengthen our economy even more and meet the challenges of the twenty-first century, it is high time that technical education is incorporated into the mainstream choices of education for students. Although the government has taken a lot of steps in this regard, unless there is active participation of the common masses as well as destigmatisation, they would not be fruitful in the long run.
About the Author
Rassiq Aziz Kabir is a final-year student of Economics at the University of Dhaka. Rassiq also works as a freelance contributor for the English daily, The Financial Express.