There’s mismatch between our education and workplace

At present, our country has primary, secondary, higher secondary and higher education systems. Along with these, there are also job-related education systems, such as technical, engineering, medical, vocational etc. However, vocational education has not spread widely in the country. As a result, millions of young people with traditional college and university degrees are carrying the disgrace of unemployment.

Primary education should be the foundation of one's life. Secondary education will be social education or basic knowledge. And higher education should be technical or career oriented education.

A little expertise is needed in subjects like history, literature, philosophy, political science etc. Very few and selected people study here; they will do research. And most people should study technical subjects. But our country sees the opposite. As a result, a shortage surplus is erupting.

The shortage surplus is – having a few experts where there is a need for more, and creating extra manpower for a profession that has no need of it.

For example, readymade garments (RMG) is the main industry of our country. A big number of people are employed here. But there are not many institutions in our country to produce RMG specialists. The mid-range technicians we need here are not coming out in our country. Lots of people from India and Sri Lanka are coming and working in our country.

We are only giving degrees instead of technical education. However, most of the educated people in the developed countries are educated in technical, vocational and job-oriented education. Even in the fast developing countries of Asia like South Korea, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka etc, vocational education has gained considerable importance.

Siddiqur Rahman is  the former director of IER, Dhaka University