A strategic planning exercise for the development of higher education for the next two decades has been initiated by the Ministry of Education. A strategic planning committee representing academia, the government, and the civil society has been formed to guide this process. Six committees with their secretariat at the University Grants Commission have prepared draft reports on the vision of higher education, its future shape and size, quality and governance issues, and financing and resource requirements.

The six reports have been summarized into a consolidated draft which has been the subject of consultation with academic groups. This is a welcome initiative. The consultations held so far have repeatedly emphasized three general points: (a) Quality of higher education has to be defined in terms of its relevance to national development objectives and reducing inequities in society and educational opportunities, (b) Quality and governance issues are inextricably connected, and (c) The government has to demonstrate its good faith in pursuing genuine reform and take the lead in depoliticizing education issues and forging a consensus through open dialogue.

Questions arise at several levels. What do we know about the educational missions and goals of the new university under the sponsorship of Delwar Hussain Saidi, a person with a highly controversial and allegedly criminal past and "four Saudis" as funders? There are larger issues about madrassa education, partly under a thin government oversight, and the quomi madrasas without any public accountability. How should the education program in these made relevant to modern life and their graduates made productive citizens? There are already five public and private Islamic institutions claiming the status of university. What is their performance and output? Do we need one more?

Over two dozen private universities have been authorized by the government during its current tenure. There is concern that these have been allowed to be established without applying the government's own criteria and procedures under the Private Universities Act and that they are giving a bad name to the term university. A University Grants Commission enquiry recommended closure of at least eight private universities for serious defaults, but this recommendation is yet to be given effect.

Another set of questions is about the decision-making process regarding setting up of new private or public universities. Press reports suggest that the University Grants Commission had no role in the recent decision. Apparently the Ministry of Education did not have much of a say either. How was the decision made? Was the due process followed? And why should not the process of approval be more transparent to the public?

Decisions of momentous importance have been taken through an opaque process without due public scrutiny, dialogue, and transparency at great cost to the nation. A case in point is the rejection in 1995 of the offer to be linked to the undersea cable backbone for the internet that is now costing Bangladesh hundreds of millions of dollars extra and has set us back by at least two decades in exploiting the potential of digital communication technology. We are about to commit another monumental blunder by not joining the Asian highway network, thus foreclosing the opportunity to turn Bangladesh into the hub of communication and trade within South Asia and between South and East Asia.

By design, inertia or apathy, religion-based education from the primary to the tertiary level has been growing. Some events and decisions, like the proverbial genii in the bottle, are intractably difficult to undo. The Pandora's box of religion in state affairs, a settled issue in the national constitution, was opened by the military rulers in their desperate quest for legitimacy and support by appealing to common people's religious sentiments. We are now reaping the whirlwind. (Apologies for the mixed metaphor.)

The unchecked growth of religion-based educational institutions, without a strategy for defining clearly their place and role in the national education system, has even more far-reaching and irreversible consequences than the misguided moves on the undersea cable link or the Asian highway network.

On decision-making about setting up universities and other educational issues which are of public concern, why not make the process of consideration and approval more open to the public by placing the relevant facts and arguments on the website of the University Grants Commission and the Ministry of Education and invite public comments?

This is not the whole answer to the problem, but at least a step forward in looking at policy issues in daylight. As Mr. Kamal Siddiqui, the Principal Secretary in the Prime Minister's Office said recently in a seminar on right to infromation, sunshine is the best disinfectant.

Dr. Ahmed is Director of Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University.