Huge Changes to Come in the Country's Education System

Huge changes for country's education

The government is planning to create over 10,000 teaching positions at public colleges in the country.

The education ministry is also planning to introduce 45 new subjects to tertiary education through the government colleges to meet the demand of students.

Of the 10,000 new teaching positions, about 3,550 positions will be created to existing 67 subjects at public colleges and the rest 6,590 positions will be created for newly-introduced subjects, recommended a survey report of the education ministry revealed on July 12, 2015 (Sunday).

An education ministry committee to create the proposal on new teaching positions and the new subjects submitted its report at a ministry meeting. There are 14,820 teaching positions at 305 government colleges across the country. About 2,000 positions, many in rural area colleges, are currently vacant.

Government colleges play the most significant role in providing opportunities of higher education for students living especially in rural and semi-urban areas who do not get chance in public universities. Top education ministry officials at a meeting on July 12, 2015 (Sunday) discussed the plan on increasing of posts of teachers to 24,970 from the existing 14,820 and new subjects at the government colleges.

The meeting, attended by education minister Nurul Islam Nahid and education secretary Nazrul Islam Khan, asked ministry officials to work on details of the planning, said a joint secretary who attended the meeting. 'This was our first meeting on increasing the posts of teachers and introducing new subjects at the government colleges. We will further discuss it, will hold seminars and discussions, before finalizing the decision, said Mollah Jalal Uddin, joint secretary (college) of the ministry.

Shortage of teachers is badly affecting academic activities in government colleges in outlying districts and upazilas, while colleges in the capital have more teachers than required. Teachers said that most of the teachers, who manage to come to the capital through lobbying, try to remain attached to colleges in Dhaka. Education ministry officials said that new teaching posts and fulfilling vacant posts were necessary to ensure quality education, as the colleges survive on a staggeringly low student-teacher ratio.

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Account BenefitColleges, including Eden Mahila College, Dhaka College, Government Titumir College, Government Bangla College and Kabi Nazrul Government College, in the capital, have more teachers than the posts sanctioned. On the flipside, the number of teachers at Bhola Government College, Bhandaria Government College in Pirojpur, Hatiya Dwip Government College in Noakhali, Parshuram Government College in Feni, Khagrachari Government College, Habiganj Mahila College, Gurudayal Government College in Kishoreganj fall below the organogram.

The survey report said that only colleges at district headquarters should be allowed to operate honors and post graduation courses as many such colleges of upazila level fail to provide quality higher education in absence of infrastructural facilities. The survey report said that there are 305 government colleges with 12.90 lakh students and the teacher to student ratio was a staggering 1:87.

It recommended increasing the number of professors to 2,606 from the existing 503, increasing associate professor to 5,794 from the existing 2,201, assistant professors to 8,050 from 4,177, and lecturers to 8,517 from 7,928 positions. The survey report proposed introducing 45 subjects, like including pharmacy, fisheries, forestry, human resource management, garments and technology, tourism and hospitality, mass communication and journalism, disaster management, international relations, drama and media studies, education research, environmental science and others.

Education officials said the 37 public universities do not often have capacity to enroll all students of tertiary level to their preferred subjects, so many of these students are compelled to enroll at private universities. If these subjects are introduced, students will be relieved of the burden of high education expenditure.