Polytechnic studies at a low ebb

Students are showing little interest in studying at the polytechnic institutes of the country with an estimated 1.35 lakh seats remaining vacant at the 624 public and private institutes offering diploma courses.

Bangladesh Technical Education Board records show that 1,27,976 of the 1,85,055 seats at the 511 private polytechnic institutes went vacant in 2019–20 while 7,127 of the 56,170 seats at the 49 government institutes and 64 technical schools and colleges, which also offer diploma courses, were without students.

In 2018–19, 66,119 of the 1,22,030 seats at the private institutes remained vacant while 7,080 of the 55,870 seats at the public institutes went without students, according to the board.

Developed countries like Germany, Japan, China and South Korea have developed their workforce giving special importance to technical education, said Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology computer science and engineering department professor M Kaykobad.

‘Plumbers, carpenters and other technical professionals in those countries get both honour and huge honorarium. The society in Bangladesh, on the other hand, look down on the people doing technical jobs and that is why meritorious students reluctant to study at polytechnic institutes,’ he said.

‘Allowing unlimited students in general education at the tertiary level the government is patronising developing jobless graduates. But, investing more in technical education, the government could create skilled labour force, reduce unemployment and earn a huge amount of foreign remittance sending the skilled labours abroad,’ he added.     

Government officials, teachers and professionals said that seats at all the private institutes and newly-opened departments of the public institutes remained vacant of which many institutes started after the Awami League-led government assumed in power in 2009.

They said that students were reluctant for enrolling at polytechnic institutes as job opportunities did not increase proportionate to the increase in the institutes every year.

Other reasons they cited for the reluctance included not updating job circulars for adopting diploma degree holders in government offices and increase in the opportunities for obtaining bachelor degrees at public and private universities.

‘Students are not interested in taking diploma engineering degrees from the expensive private institutes when over 150 public and private universities and several hundred colleges offer bachelor degrees for similar or even less fees,’ Technical Education Board chairman Morad Hossain Mollah said.

‘Newly-opened disciplines at public polytechnic institutes go vacant as job opportunities for the disciplines have not been created in the local market,’ he said.

Bangladesh Polytechnic Teachers’ Association former president Nirmal Chandra Sikder said that vacancies at the private institutes increased after over 500 institutes were allowed to operate without assessing their facilities and analysing the job market.

‘Good private institutes charge up to Tk 1,20,000 for a 4-year diploma degree while a bachelor degree could be obtained at other institutes for a similar fee. So why should they come here?’ asks Nirmal, also a director of the private National Polytechnic Institute.

Private polytechnic institutes started operating in the mid-1990s and in the following two decades the number has crossed 500, he said.

‘Many of them are not getting students even after offering a 4-year diploma for only Tk 40,000,’ he added.

‘Even allowing the SSC degree with GPA 2.5 as the minimum qualification and accepting students who passed the public exam a decade ago did not give benefit,’ he said, adding that qualified students wanted to enroll only in few disciplines of some renowned polytechnic institutes in big cities. 

The BPTA’s incumbent general secretary and also a senior teacher at Dhaka Polytechnic Institute, AM Zahirul Islam, said that all the government polytechnic institutes were struggling with huge shortages of qualified teachers, laboratories and workshop facilities and thus could not produce quality graduates.

‘The number of the laboratories at Dhaka Polytechnic Institute has remained the same as it was in 1960s but the enrollment has increased 20 times,’ said Zahirul, adding that teachers had to take classes in two shifts.

‘The government’s decision of relaxing the minimum enrollment qualification has allowed many unqualified students to take admission at institutes and many of them drop out for not being able to pass the exams,’ he said.

An estimated 5,000 students of the government institutes drop out each year while a significant number of them remain jobless after obtaining the diploma, he said.

The government has appointed no additional teachers at the technical schools and colleges even after introducing diploma courses at the institutions, which used to provide only vocational courses earlier, he said.

Zahirul said that the BPTA had been demanding increases in the numbers of teachers, employees and technical facilities.

A Dhaka Polytechnic student, Mehedy Hasan, said that students found it difficult to understand lessons for absence of qualified teachers and facilities like sufficient classrooms, laboratories and workshops.  

Mehedy, also the convenor of Bangladesh Polytechnic Students Association, said that many final semester students at different institutes were in doubt of getting any job as the government circulars invited only diploma engineers in civil, electric and mechanical disciplines.

Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh president AKMA Hamid said that the government put the polytechnic institutes in jeopardy by adopting the wrong policy of establishing more institutes without appointing required qualified teachers and improving the laboratory, library and workshop facilities.

‘The government has introduced many new disciplines at the institutes which have no demand on the job market. By updating the appointment policies of different agencies job opportunities must be created for the diploma holders in refrigeration and air-conditioning, environment, electro-medical, telecommunication, hospitality management and food disciplines,’ he said.

The government, he said, should focus more on improving the quality of education for developing skilled workforce instead of increasing the number of institutions. 

Technical and Madrasah Education Division secretary Md Aminul Islam said that the government would soon appoint 7,448 teachers and 5,159 employees.

‘We are also working to develop the technical facilities at the public institutes,’ he said.

The present government, he said, has set a policy of producing 50 per cent of the tertiary graduates in technical education by 2040 which at present is 12 per cent.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net