The educational system in Bangladesh is three-tiered and highly subsidized. The government of Bangladesh operates many schools in the primary, secondary, and higher secondary levels. It also subsidizes parts of the funding for many private schools. In the tertiary education sector, the government also funds more than 15 state universities through the University Grants Commission. The educational system of Bangladesh faces several problems. In the past, Bangladesh education was primarily a British-controlled, upper-class affair with all courses given in English and very little being done for the common people. The Bangladesh education board has taken steps to leave such practices in the past and is looking forward to education as a way to provide a somewhat poverty-stricken nation with a brighter future. Bangladesh has one of the lowest literacy rates in South Asia. One study found a 15.5% primary school teacher absence rate!
The low performance in primary education is also matter of concern. School drop-out rates and grade repetition rates are high. Poor school attendance and low contact time in school are factors contributing to low level of learning achievement. Further, the system lacks a sound Human Resource Development and deployment system and this has demoralized the primary education sector personnel, including teachers, and contributes to poor performance. Poverty is a big threat to primary education. The government has to be more careful in order enhance the education situation of our country.
Hello friends hope you are well. Today I will be writing about the economy of Bangladesh. The economy of this nation has grown 5-6% per year since 1996 despite inefficient state-owned enterprises, delays in exploiting natural gas resources, insufficient power supplies, and slow achievement of economic reforms. But still Bangladesh remains a poor, overpopulated, and inefficiently-governed nation. Although more than half of GDP is generated through the service sector, nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshis are employed in the agriculture sector, with rice as the single-most-important product. Garment exports and remittances from Bangladeshis working overseas, mainly in the Middle East and East Asia, fuel economic growth. In 2008 Bangladesh pursued a monetary policy aimed at maintaining high employment, but created higher inflation in the process. Major impediments to growth include frequent cyclones and floods, inefficient state-owned enterprises, inadequate port facilities, a rapidly growing labor force that cannot be absorbed by agriculture, delays in exploiting energy resources (natural gas), insufficient power supplies, and slow implementation of economic reforms. Economic reform is stalled in many instances by political infighting and corruption at all levels of government. Progress also has been blocked by opposition from the bureaucracy, public sector unions, and other vested interest groups. For higher GDP growth, investments in both public and private sectors will need to be accelerated. The prevailing political and economic stability has greatly encouraged investment in the private sector. The trend of foreign direct investment is very encouraging. These way friends, the economy of Bangladesh will surely boost by 2050.
Digital divide is a term used to describe great disparities in opportunity to access the Internet and the information and educational/business opportunities tied to this access, between the different classes of people in a society. Many people have been wondering whether Digital Bangladesh will really benefit the disadvantaged of the society or will it further widen the difference between the haves and have-nots. It is a valid question and our approach to Digital Bangladesh will determine which direction it will go. To ensure that the benefits are equitably shared, the government should keep in mind at least the following considerations:
• Priority should be given to automating government services that benefit a large section of the population, such as land record digitization.
• A common pitfall to over-emphasize on technologies such as computers and the Internet should be avoided. It is apparent that these technologies will be out of reach for much of the population in the near future. Instead, emphasis should be placed on other communication technologies such as community radio and mobile devices such as handhelds and mobile phones.
• Development of web, radio and TV content that is comprehensible by large sections of the population should be emphasized and encouraged.
• Special incentives should be given to the private sector and NGOs to develop ICT-based services specifically targeted towards the under-served.
The government has to realize that Digital Bangladesh is a vision that can be turned into reality only through joint efforts by all sectors and that it should benefit most of the citizens of Bangladesh. Only then we will be able to decrease the widening gap between the wealthy and the deprived in the nation.
As I had mentioned in my last post, for Digital Bangladesh to take place there has to be a transformation to a digital system in infrastructure, governance and education, the three most vital areas for the growth of a nation. The government has to be careful in taking steps to empower the citizens. All Bangladeshis must have access to ICT, and the skills to use it, in digital Bangladesh.
To transform the government, we have to have e-readiness. The issues impeding the growth of the hardware and software sectors must be resolved. Bangladeshi businesses, especially SMEs, need to be able to transact through credit card over the internet and/or mobile phone. New technologies such as WiMax can be integrated into the overall system. It is essential that the software and hardware industry of Bangladesh becomes a part of the global supply chain for ICT products and services, while serving as a platform for enabling the above goals in the digital age. A communication infrastructure that allows ICT-based services to be deployed equitably throughout the nation will make digital Bangladesh a reality.
Essentially, there has to be implementation of ICT in virtually every sector -- agriculture to government budgeting, port management to National Board of Revenue's tax management, and media to security management. In recent times, we have witnessed growing security threats in our country. Information technology can be a very useful tool in preventing a large catastrophe from taking place. A digital database containing fingerprints can be a tool for fighting possible threats.
In order to create digital Bangladesh, the present government can start by looking closely into all the previous ICT policies and take prudent steps. The ICT ministry and its subsidiary, Bangladesh Computer Council (BCC), should be strengthened. Skilled manpower needs to be developed. We need to train our teachers. The government's promise for a better tomorrow though the promised 'dinbodol' can be fulfilled through an honest desire for the creation of a digital Bangladesh. All the relevant stakeholders must be brought to a common platform. A chief Information officer should be appointed for the proper and successful management of the project.
Making digital Bangladesh will take united effort. The private sector, NGOs and grassroots organizations need to be involved in this endeavor. Therefore we too must cooperate all-together and help the government. Only through joint effort can we create a truly digital nation.
What is Digital Bangladesh? Digital Bangladesh is the creation of what is popularly termed as a "knowledge-based society," in which creation and exchange of "knowledge" becomes an increasingly key factor of production, and in the process reducing the relative importance of traditional factors of production such as land, labor and capital. Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are a critical component for building this knowledge-society. There are various aspects to building a Digital Bangladesh, all of which are equally important pillars. A Digital Bangladesh may comprise the following:
Governance: A government that has the capacity to deliver services to citizens through the Internet, radio and TV and also to make its internal operations more efficient and transparent through the use of ICTs.
Education: An education sector that utilizes information technologies and communication networks for dissemination and exchange of knowledge.
Health: A health sector that makes use of ICTs for connecting relevant healthcare service providers and for connecting doctors with remote patients.
Commerce and industry: An industrial sector that uses ICTs for marketing and promotion of its products, for producing internal efficiencies, and for communication and transaction between entities.
Software and hardware industry: A vibrant ICT-based industry that is part of the global supply chain for ICT products and services, while serving as the platform for enabling the above goals.
Communication infrastructure: Last but not least, a communications infrastructure that allows ICT-based services to be deployed equitably throughout the nation.
Energy supply is a major problem for all classes in Bangladesh. The electricity infrastructure is old and badly maintained, breaks down frequently and is inadequate to meet the demand. Power cuts are frequent; many areas are only supplied for a few hours a day. Some areas have no power for days at a time when a local generator fails. For the ruling class, it impedes productivity, forcing shutdowns of workplaces when supply fails. For workers, it means loss of income due to these unpaid stoppages. For the wider society, air conditioning stops and makes crowded urban areas even more unbearable in hot weather. Lack of refrigeration encourages traders to regularly doctor food with dangerous cheap preservatives such as formaldehyde. Water supplies are also affected, as much of it is dependent on electric pumps extracting groundwater supplies, both for domestic use and for farm irrigation.
The lack of regular electricity has severely affected industrial output, particularly in the jute mills, the country's second largest industry after the garment sector. Loss-making mills, whose management partly blames lack of power supply for unprofitability, have withheld wages for months at a time. This has sparked strikes and violent clashes.
Increased industrial profitability may be a motivation to put greater effort into resolving the energy crisis, but the larger political situation must first be resolved. The lack of adequate energy infrastructure severely affects both qualities of life for the poor and capital accumulation for the rich industrialists. In contrast, government officials have found the energy question highly profitable. The inadequacies of energy supply are a direct result of the corruption and short term greed of all previous governments. Every energy project has had funding and progress dissipated by institutional corruption and pilfering of funds at every level of government and business.
The energy infrastructure crisis neatly illustrates one of the main aspects of the present political conflict in Bangladesh. The state bureaucrats' domination of politics and economic disorganization is restricting the growth of the economy, becoming a 'fetter on the forces of production'; this growth is represented at present largely by the quickly expanding garment industry. The culture of kickbacks, bribes, unproductive retainers and parasitical officialdom must be confronted and overcome before the conditions for a stable modern industrial economy can be created. Therefore this problem must be solved very soon so that we can get a better and developed nation by 2050.
