What should be higher education strategy for Bangladesh?

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced higher educational institutions to shut down their campuses, move classes online and radically transform their teaching pedagogy. Many institutions are struggling to meet the moment. This impact on education system has forced the educators, policy makers, government and industries to rethink higher education strategies throughout the globe including Bangladesh and make it resilient.

With that under consideration, a webinar titled "Resilient Higher Education Strategy for Bangladesh" was relayed from MGM Consulting Limited Facebook page where the State Minister of ICT Division, Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP, Professor Dr AK Azad Chowdhury, Professor Emeritus, University of Dhaka and Professor and Pro- Vice Chancellor Dr ASM Maksud Kamal, University of Dhaka were present as panelists. Khaled Mahmud, associate professor, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Dhaka moderated the session.

All the higher education institutions in Bangladesh, both private and public have realised the need to move virtual and are taking the support of technology for the continuity of education of the students. While talking about how technology has changed people's lives and work, Professor Dr ASM Maksud Kamal mentioned in the discussion that the fourth industrial revolution is changing how people live, work, and communicate. It is reshaping education by merging the boundaries between the physical and digital spaces. People have experienced this new normal any ways. This pandemic has only expedited that.

The newly appointed pro-vice chancellor (Academic) of the University of Dhaka also informed that the University of Dhaka has formed a committee under his leadership to formulate strategy for inclusive education and learning since a handful of students have still not been able to participate in the academic curriculum due to lack of IT infrastructure support. He mentioned that there are about 47,000 students in Dhaka University and among them about 36,000 students are at the undergraduate level. The university is trying to bring in every one under the online platform. There are a lot of challenges: accessibility to device, data and bandwidth etc. In addition to that, there are a lot of rural areas where the students reside have been severely affected by flood; cyclone Ampan has disrupted electricity in some areas. The reality is even more challenging than what can be imagined. The university authorities is working hard and trying to formulate a long-term sustainable strategy for the continuity of education.

The university is, in fact, planning to facilitate loan schemes for students in collaboration with financial institutions to acquire devices for the students to participate in online classes. They are also working to strengthen the campus networking system and the LAN.

State Minister for ICT Division, Zunaid Ahmed Palak MP, highlighted one very critical issue that moving online not only requires ICT support but also one needs to have ICT knowledge. Under the guidance and support of ICT Advisor to the  Prime Minister,  Sajib Wajed Joy, ICT education has become mandatory from class six onwards. Thus the students are being able to do online classes through TV or internet now during this unprecedented time. He mentioned a number of projects undertaken by the government under the guidance of Sajib Wajed Joy, the architect of Digital Bangladesh, namely, the one student one laptop project, the Sheikh Russell Digital Lab, IT Incubation Centre in the university campus for collaboration, etc. All these will enable the young generations to be IT literate and focus more on developing IT skills. He also highlighted the need to rethink the conventional way of education and focus more on skill-based education like the Finish Education system.

Dr AK Azad, former vice chancellor of Dhaka University and former chairman of UGC mentioned that the current government had started digitisation since 2009 when the government started the Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) with the Ministry of Education funded by the World Bank. Under this project, the government started Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BDREN) and since then people are using platforms like Zoom. He emphasised the importance of virtual classroom and teaching and also highlighted the advantages of it. He emphasised that the accountability and transparency in terms of monitoring the quality of teaching at different levels is easier in virtual classrooms than regular face to face teaching. Now, in order to move virtually, there needs to be an entirely different ecosystem; such as, content creators for module development, technology platforms providers for classes, evaluations, student admission, etc. and those with expertise in artificial and augmented reality.

The state minister also revealed that the government is already funding 100 edtech startups in the 2020-2021 Mujib Barsha titled "Bangabandhu Innovation Grant". Besides all these, animation labs, technology parks, entrepreneurship and innovation hubs are being developed where innovative young students will be able not only to develop their skills but also take these skills around the globe. For this,  collaboration with industries, policy makers and educational institutions to take it further and make a mark in the globe are crucial.

Every change is prone to resistance. However, the current forced experiment due to Covid-19 with online intervention has significantly lowered the psychological barriers to change among parents, students, faculty and university administrators in Bangladesh. Bangladesh will probably have to move to virtual/ blended learning permanently in the foreseeable future. Though the primary objective of digital transformation of the universities is greater access, global reach, personalised instructions, and improvement in teaching pedagogy; however, due to this pandemic, risk mitigation by ensuring physical distancing has become an equally important driver of digital transformation by allowing universities to continue enrolling and teaching students digitally. Universities that build digital capabilities will only have the resilience to seamlessly pivot through any crisis, whether that is an extended impact of the pandemic or any other future calamity or disruption.

The writer is an associate professor of IBA, University of Dhaka. She can be reached at [email protected]