EDITORIAL : THE DAILY STAR, BANGLADESH

 

Resource-strapped returnees

Explore new avenues for them

A very large chunk of the 34,000 Bangladeshi migrant workers who have just returned from Libya by way of camps in Tunisia, Greece, Egypt and Algeria remain in dire financial straits because of the wages they have not received in Libya. That is worrying, for both the returnees as well as the Bangladesh government. With employment a perennial problem for this resource-strapped country, one can surely understand the hurdles before the government where rehabilitating these workers is concerned. It is a situation which gravely taxes the imagination and calls for a clear, well thought out approach to the issue.

A bit of good news here is the apparent readiness of the World Bank to come forward with loans aimed at easing the burden on the returnees. If the WB wishes the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to be involved in the disbursement of the loans to the returnees, we ought not to set up bureaucratic roadblocks through insisting that the money be routed through the Expatriate Welfare Bank. The IOM has done a creditable job by ensuring the safe return of the migrant workers and so has the skill and ability to follow it up by acting as a link between the WB and the workers in providing financial aid to the latter. The imperative now is for those who have returned home empty-handed to be given some economic lifeline.

Mapping that future will be a huge challenge. For the government, this crisis should be a chance for serious thinking on employment generation in the country. It is unfortunate but true that successive governments have not clearly shaped strategies to employ people in the various professions. That attitude must now come to an end. Meanwhile, with such a large number of workers not just from Libya but from elsewhere in Asia and the Middle East coming back home, it is of critical importance that the government explore, from a sense of immediacy, newer avenues of manpower export. It is not merely the welfare of the workers that is important. The matter of remittances in our economy is crucial as well. 

 

IT education at schools ,colleges

Infrastructure direly inadequate

WHEN the government envisages building a Digital Bangladesh, the news that computer studies at secondary and higher secondary levels are conducted without specialized teachers in the state-run educational institutions is indeed appalling. It is unbelievable that governments have not created any permanent post for teachers in this discipline at 570 schools and colleges since introducing the subject fifteen years ago. Classes are conducted by teachers of other subjects that too in makeshift arrangements.

The current situation, if not redressed would jeopardize the progressive plans of the government with regards to spread of IT education.

By contrast, private educational institutions run by government subsidy have permanent posts for this field. They have efficient IT teaching staff enabling students to flourish in computer education.

While the students take keen interest in the subject the government lags behind in making the infrastructure available. Strangely, there's still no recruitment provision of IT teachers in the staffing pattern and there's no sign of efforts to create such posts. Situation is worse in the Upazila levels where teachers seldom use computers for teaching.

Sadly, many institutions have neither computers nor teachers. Education experts and teachers have underscored the need for making computer education, which is now optional, compulsory to help implant IT skills in talented minds which will stand them in good stead in the cyber world.

Here computer is not only a tool for information but also an integral part of the learning process. We should modernize the learning methods at all levels. There's been a huge demand and enthusiasm among all classes of students starting from Upazilas for IT education. Hence the opportunity to rear a strong IT proficient generation for the future. This prospect should not be squandered. Digital Bangladesh is only possible if we have an army of IT educated force.