Dr. Idris Miah :
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh decided to increase retirement age from 59 to 67 years for the scientists of Bangladesh Council of Science and Industrial Research (BCSIR) on August, 2013 .After two months, on last October this decision of retirement age was extended to all scientists of the country. It is a remarkable decision. The result of this decision is great and long lasting.
Science is the key of development of modern world. It ensured possible of many impossible things. At present everything is in hand due to science. Development of a country mostly depends on scientific activities. The country is more developed where scientific activities are more. Scientific research and its application in western world including United States and Japan are top and they are role model of development. So nobody can think development neglecting science. The backward countries of the world are backward due to lack of scientific research and activities. The most neglected subject in these countries is science. Bangladesh is not out of these. Science and its researchers and scientists are neglected. There work facilities are limited, work environments are nonscientific and work reorganizations are insufficient. They have to go out of the service at the age when they are still capable to work and their work experience and knowledge are maximum. At this time their work quality is very high. It is a great loss of the country and nation which can’t be replace by any other things. In this type of mismanagement in different sectors in Bangladesh is due to its poor financial condition. Besides the ignorance and lack of interest of authority are other reasons. Although the country developed a lot after its independence, yet it is far away from its target. We have to be forward with our limited wealth. We have to use the experience and knowledge of our scholars in different fields. On the other hand, science education has to modernize and we have to attract brilliant students to science education.
Intellectual based professionals are enriched with their experience. Those who are long time experienced, they are great idols in knowledge. Their workflow has to be inspire instead of create barricade is expected. This is true for all wise men including research scientists. Country, nation and whole world will be benefited by proper use of them. It should not be expected by anybody to stop them due to age barrier. A few extraordinary scholars among them come out. They are blessings of time. They must be allowed to work till death. If Rabindranath had to stop his activities of art and literature on his 57 or 59 years, then Bangali, Bangla literature even world literature would face a great loss. But writer, social worker etc. can continue their work without any laboratory” or equipment support. We all want to allow mystery of jute life discoverer scientist Maksudul Alam should work till his death. If we want best use of intellectual based professionals, then they have to allow continuing their works without any barrier. This rule is not following everywhere in Bangladesh. Those who work with art culture, they are working from their own stage. Working opportunity for university teachers and judges of higher courts increases their retirement age. Increase of retirement age of Bangladesh Council of Scientific and Industrial Research from 59 years to 67 years is a remarkable decision. It is a milestone. But it is not applicable to all research scientists of the country, which is essential. Materialization of this is matter of time. As like as scientists of BCSIR, who contribute in their own fields, scientists of other scientific organizations also contributing to their own fields. Expected decision of retirement age increase for all research scientists of the country is reflected in the latest decision of the Government. The country is self-sufficient in food due to group activity of agriculture researches and of course farmers. Researchers of Atomic Energy Commission also contributed in this field. Natural gas and coal have been discovered by geologists and geophysicists of Petrobangla and Geological Survey of Bangladesh. Besides, research scientists, the scientists of other fields are contributing in the development of the country.
The door of quality scientific research has opened due to the latest decision of retirement age of research scientist of the country. The success of Bangalee scientists is not negligible. The name of Professor Satten Bose of Dhaka University and scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose spreads all over the world. The contribution of physician Dr. Mohammad Ibrahim or founder of BCSIR Dr. Kudrat-E-Khuda is great. In present Bangladesh, agricultural scientists create a revolution in this sector. Natural gas and coal have been discovered by geo-scientists of this land. Migrated Bangladeshi scientists like fiber optics scientist Mohammad Ataul Karim in USA or jean scientist Abed Chowdhury in Australia are successfully continuing international standard research work in different parts of the world. Valuable advises and active cooperation of these famous scientists can be adapted. There is no doubt that they will happily share their knowledge.
Precaution is essential to implement this government decision. A large number of scientists are working in different government and semi government organization. Many of them are devoted in research. But a large part of them are not doing so. Even some of them are not interested in scientific research. A part of them are engage in administrative work. So some conditions are essential before increasing service age. First of all valuation of their service records have to eases properly. In this case, number of published article/report, number of published articles where principal author, number of articles published in national and international journals, number of article yet to publish, quality of work etc. could be the criteria to consider individual eligibility. Second consideration should be special achievement or discovery/invention. Thirdly, health condition has to consider. And final the consideration for those scientific designation holder officers who are engage in administrative work rather scientific research. Some of them have no relation with research work. Besides these, researcher’s future plans, their feasibility and necessity also have to consider. If above matters consider properly then remarkable change will come in scientific research. Interest of work will increase to all. Quality of research will also increase. Special pay scale for scientist and creation of modem scientific equipment and work environment are important factors. As a result brain drain to foreign countries will reduce at the same time country even the world will be benefited and Bangladesh will develop more rapidly.
There are some extraordinary experienced scientists among the already retired persons especially among the recently retired persons, whose alternatives have not yet been filled up. If these scientists still active then bring back under special consideration by creating new posts. In this case those organizations will be rich and the country will be benefited. Successfully implementation of this step Government will be benefited instead of loss. Pension and other retirement benefit will be delayed. As a result primary expenditure will reduce. But a problem may arise due to delayed of promotion of sub-ordinate. Dissatisfaction may develop among them and may lose interest of work. Creation of some posts of research scientist overcomes this problem. In a word everything has to consider before implement the decision.
In this circumstance, an extraordinary change in the field of scientific research may be possible by successful implementation of this remarkable government decision. As a result Bangladesh will proceed towards developments more rapidly. Nobody can stop this, but everybody has to be careful not to change this decision in future.
