FINANCE Minister AMA Muhith’s suggestion that tuition fees in public colleges, universities and medical colleges should increase at least fivefold from fiscal 2017-18 is a reasonable proposition. Tuition fees at government run schools will however remain unchanged. We are for free or low cost education at primary and secondary level, but in our view education at higher level must be targeted for development of skilled manpower and its cost can be justifiably increased.
The present tuition fees at Tk 12 in public colleges and Tk 16 in public universities per month is quite insignificant when students spend plenty of money otherwise in entertainment and other outdoor activities. Moreover it is just a fraction of what students pay at private colleges and universities. The huge gap is not justified for almost similar teaching curriculum.
So we will not say the proposed tuition fee hike will not be affordable when an average student spends over thousand taka per month in life style while students from wealthy families spend many times more. It is true that only a small part of the students may feel overburdened by the rise and their genuine problems may be sorted out under certain stipend programme. But the overall picture is that the government is spending huge money to run public colleges and universities when the beneficiaries are reasonably expected to share some of the higher cost without treating state-run education as free or quite low cost services. The fact is that if they have to pay more they may also turn out to be more responsible and their parents to be more watchful to see their children are properly utilizing the facilities to be better educated.
It is noticeable that students at private colleges and universities are paying many times more because the management runs such institutions from tuition fees. A student at a private college pays several hundred taka to several thousands per month while private universities are realizing Tk 40 to 50 thousands for a semester of four months. In this context government institutions are offering very low cost education with comparatively better quality education in most cases. Moreover tuition fees at government medical colleges also deserve to be much higher because of the higher cost involved.
In our view education at primary and secondary schools must be treated as basic education and to be at low cost, but public colleges and universities now must provide skill development courses. Time is running out to produce aimless graduates. Higher education must be treated as investment in future to create skilled workers and managerial manpower for the economy and business.
So we will suggest that the Finance Minister’s move to increase tuition fees at higher education level must also see the restructuring of the college and university curriculum for skill development to meet the growing demand of the labour market at home and abroad.
The present tuition fees at Tk 12 in public colleges and Tk 16 in public universities per month is quite insignificant when students spend plenty of money otherwise in entertainment and other outdoor activities. Moreover it is just a fraction of what students pay at private colleges and universities. The huge gap is not justified for almost similar teaching curriculum.
So we will not say the proposed tuition fee hike will not be affordable when an average student spends over thousand taka per month in life style while students from wealthy families spend many times more. It is true that only a small part of the students may feel overburdened by the rise and their genuine problems may be sorted out under certain stipend programme. But the overall picture is that the government is spending huge money to run public colleges and universities when the beneficiaries are reasonably expected to share some of the higher cost without treating state-run education as free or quite low cost services. The fact is that if they have to pay more they may also turn out to be more responsible and their parents to be more watchful to see their children are properly utilizing the facilities to be better educated.
It is noticeable that students at private colleges and universities are paying many times more because the management runs such institutions from tuition fees. A student at a private college pays several hundred taka to several thousands per month while private universities are realizing Tk 40 to 50 thousands for a semester of four months. In this context government institutions are offering very low cost education with comparatively better quality education in most cases. Moreover tuition fees at government medical colleges also deserve to be much higher because of the higher cost involved.
In our view education at primary and secondary schools must be treated as basic education and to be at low cost, but public colleges and universities now must provide skill development courses. Time is running out to produce aimless graduates. Higher education must be treated as investment in future to create skilled workers and managerial manpower for the economy and business.
So we will suggest that the Finance Minister’s move to increase tuition fees at higher education level must also see the restructuring of the college and university curriculum for skill development to meet the growing demand of the labour market at home and abroad.
