Bangladesh a no-show again

Will higher education remain a luxury? Photo: Adnan / DrikNews

There are international meetings and conferences galore, the value of which may be questioned. These are of all kinds and serve diverse purposes. However, there are conclaves of global scope on important subjects which set standards and indicate directions for the world by sharing experiences and consulting stakeholders, including governments, institutions and civil society protagonists. The World Conference on Higher Education convened by Unesco in Paris, July 5-8, was such an event. The last such forum was held in 1998 and the next one will be a decade hence.
Over 1,200 delegates representing more than 100 countries, including 60 ministers, several presidents and prime ministers, and leading academics were present. The seat for Bangladesh on the front row, thanks to the alphabetical order, remained vacant, behind the prominently displayed name plaque.
The minister of education or the University Grants Commission chair should have been here. There should have been also a few vice-chancellors from the vibrant private sector.
In the absence of a delegation from home, why the permanent delegate of Bangladesh to Unesco could not at least fly the flag is not known. Is it because the foreign service bureaucrats who adorn these positions are uninterested or unable to make any contribution to the dialogue? There is a case for sending an academic to Paris as our chief diplomat.
I found myself to be the sole participant from Bangladesh in this premier world forum on higher education, as an invitee of Unesco, not to represent Bangladesh, but to serve as a panelist on a session on access with quality and equity.
Apart from registering my disappointment at Bangladesh's no-show, I would like to highlight a few ideas emanating from the conference, which may be of relevance, especially to the Education Policy Formulation Committee.
Expanding access with equity and quality has become the pivotal issue in higher education. Traditionally regarded a privilege granted to a few, Europe and North America now have three quarters of young adults participating in post-secondary education and they aim for universal access. Globally there has been a rapid recent expansion of higher education -- enrolment reaching some 26 percent of the 18-24 years age-group in 2007.
China, historically a laggard, has surged ahead to 26 percent, compared to 12 percent in India, 7 percent in Bangladesh, and 4 percent in Pakistan, according to data from the Unesco Statistics Institute. By contrast, South Korea offers 90 percent of its young adults the chance to enter tertiary education, and Thailand 50 percent.
With pressure to expand, great diversity has emerged in higher education with at least four tiers in it -- community colleges and post-secondary vocational-technical training, four year degree colleges, general and specialised universities with undergraduate and post-graduate programs, and elite universities with strong post-graduate and research programs.
Higher education, therefore, has become highly hierarchical -- almost like a caste system.
An enclave of the intellectual elite -- with highly restrictive entry to the sacred precinct -- is the classical model of higher education, which is no longer relevant. Most of higher education now consists of non-university institutions, which serve the majority of tertiary level students; in Bangladesh it is 80 percent.
The system needs to look at all of its components, support each other and consider how access can be expanded with equity promoted and quality protected for the whole system.
The higher education system has remained remarkably aloof from the problems of basic education at the primary and secondary level. Yet, the quality and equity problems of higher education cannot be solved by action within higher education itself. Deficiencies in competencies and skills of secondary education completers, unprepared for the tertiary level, are the major obstacles to improved access with quality and equity at this level. In its self-interest, the tertiary system needs to find ways to be engaged in improving the basic level.
Moreover, teaching in primary and secondary education forms the largest single professional category which absorbs the products of higher education. Producing teachers in huge numbers, especially teachers for science, math, and languages, adept in content, new pedagogy and new communication technology, is a challenge everywhere for the higher education systems. Out-of the box thinking is needed in Bangladesh, where pre-service teacher development largely does not exist.
Digital platform of shared information, materials and experience can be the means of qualitative transformation of education with expanded access and equity built into the notion of quality. The ICT Infrastructure must be built and expanded to allow ICT access as a necessary condition; then come the challenges of integrating ICT with pedagogy and creation of platforms and portals for developing, assessing and distributing relevant contents. Tertiary institutions need to face these challenges for themselves and to help quality transformation in basic education.
Microsoft announced its plan to collaborate with Unesco in launching a "Learning Alliance Package" which would make solutions for access to digital content available at low or no cost to students on a mass scale. A totally on-line university program has been in operation in University of South Africa with an enrollment of 250,000.
The principle that should guide ICT-based distance education is "tolerance at the point of entry -- rigour at the point of exit." But many things must happen in-between, if access with success, not mere access, is taken as the aim.
Effective governance is the pre-requisite for good ideas to be translated into reality. Progressively greater autonomy of institutions with responsibility, transparency, accountability, self-assessment and peer review -- and less political calculations, within a framework developed by stakeholders, is the key to good governance. The accountability structure has or should have many layers -- accountability to the nation, to society, to students, to parents, to the community, and to professional peers.
Privatisation and commercialisation have come to stay and will expand. But the public good character of higher education must not be lost. Modalities have to be found, indeed can be found, to protect the public good character of higher education through partnerships, with the public system backed by the government taking the lead.
It was noted that there was a "struggle for the soul of higher education" -- globalisation and commercialisation are the villains. But the traditional concept of the mission of higher education -- the ivory tower, the enclave of the intellectual elite, the bastion of knowledge and wisdom where only a few privileged ones are granted entry -- cannot be the main inspiration that animates the soul of higher education in the 21st century.
The presence of a few of the stalwarts of higher education in Bangladesh at the conference in Paris would have been worthwhile.

Dr. Ahmed is Senior Adviser at Institute of Educational Development, Brac University.