Published in The Daily Star on Wednesday 20 November 2019
Investment in Skills in 8th Five-Year Plan
Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem
Research Director, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD)
Schools and colleges should play a major role in the “Digital Bangladesh” movement by introducing IT knowledge as a basic necessity. Students living outside Dhaka are satisfied with the education facilities provided by the government, but they are falling behind in IT subjects.
The Bangladesh job market is pyramid-shaped, where the base is becoming wider every day. Sufficient number of jobs is not being created, considering the amount of graduates we produce every year.
Adding to this issue, 13 percent of the garment factories in our country employ foreign workers. The managers of these factories admitted that their incompetency (in comparison to the foreign managers) lies in their lack of proficiency in the English language while dealing with a buyer. Therefore, the standard of education and skills required should be re-evaluated.
To maintain transparency and keep the government offices under pressure, a certain percentage of the budget can be allocated for the ministries that deal with skills development. A report containing future plans and the preceding fiscal year’s progress on the programmes and initiatives taken on skills development can be presented.
The vocational training provided by the government is not accessible to everyone. Some people are taking the same training multiple times, while a number of people are not even aware of these programmes. Many also complain about political influence whenever there is a monetary reward involved for obtaining this kind of training. There should be more focus on ensuring access to such training for the minorities as well, so that we can produce a better skilled workforce.