Prof Abdul Mannan, UGC Chairman :
There are 38 public and 95 private universities in the country. Quality education in schools, colleges and public and private universities have not been ensured at its desired level. Good teacher is a must to ensure quality education in both public and private universities. But most of the owners of private universities are doing business in the name of higher education and never try to make their institutions up to world standard. These are the words of University Grants Commission (UGC) Chairman Prof Abdul Mannan.
In an interview with The New Nation-UGC Chairman said:
There are about 32 lakh students studying in higher educational institutions in the country. Most of the students do not get educational atmosphere and touch of good teachers in private universities. The country’s public universities have also some problems. But in the recent time, both public and private universities are facing shortage of efficient teachers.
The skilled teachers of public universities are lobbying with the high-ups to stay in the divisional Headquarters. As a result, the universities in the rural areas suffer from lack of good teachers.
On the other hand, most of the private universities want to appoint the teachers with poor salaries. Their intention is to do business, not to appoint good teachers. Even they appoint teachers who retired from the public universities and lost their capabilities to teach the students.
About the academic atmosphere in the higher educational institutions, the UGC Chairman said, academic atmosphere is absent in many private universities. But it must be ensured in the interest of the students as well as the nation. Without good academic atmosphere no student will be a knowledgeable man.
Emphasizing on the extracurricular activities, he said, the students of public universities should have the scope of involving themselves in extracurricular activities. But the students of many private universities are deprived of it. It should be ensured for the students to build them world standard educated people.
He also said, a student can earn 10 percent knowledge from the classroom and rest of the 90 percent from outside the class. The students must practice in debate, sports, discussion and other extracurricular activities.
Explaining the characteristic of a teacher Prof Abdul Mannan said, there are many differences between good result and good teacher. To obtain good result a student must be a good researcher. If he or she wants to be a teacher, it is highly needed to have the capability to interact with the students. A teacher is like a coach of a sport team. A teacher must have knowledge in different arenas.
Mentioning the certificate business, the UGC Chair said, the UGC never tolerates such activities of the private universities. The UGC took stern action against some universities who did the certificate business. Of them some are run still by the order of the court and some of them were closed like Darul Ihsan University.
Underscoring the need of good classroom, laboratory and rich library facilities Prof Mannan said, every university must have world standard educational instruments to ensure the quality education and make the students skilled so that they can compete with the world people.
Comparing the foreign private universities with Bangladeshi private universities he said, the foreign private universities dominate the top ranking status of the world universities. A good number of private universities like Oxford University started their journey about hundreds of years ago. The Bangladeshi Private Universities began their journey only 24 years ago. But our students are doing better abroad after completion of their graduation from the country.
Expressing disappointment on some owners of the private universities, he said, some businessmen mix toxic in the foods for profiting huge money. Some of the owners of private universities are doing the same in the name of higher education. They have made the universities business institutions. He also praised some good owners of the private universities who try to provide quality education for the students.
Emphasizing on the need of Higher Education Commission, UGC Chairman Professor Mannan said that the commission had made a draft and submitted it to the Education Ministry.
“We have requested to make the commission strong and modern to ensure quality higher education. We have also requested to form a Higher Education Commission,” the UGC chairman said.
“India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Pakistan have autonomous body to regulate the higher education. The Indian autonomous body has the power to shut down a university at any time if it feels necessary. We should have such power too,” he said.
