Mohd. Siddiqur Rahman :
Middle class is termed as the backbone of a nation being the major contributor of all kinds of professionals in the country. It represents social, cultural and all other knowledge-based activities and plays the important role in running the state machinery. The field of arts and cultures and many more social matters are mainly run and looked after by them. The middle class provides all leaderships in the society translating all dreams and aspirations of a nation into reality.
From the economic perspective, the middle class could be divided into three sub-classes: lower middle class, mid-middle class and upper middle class. The aristocratic rich class also plays very important role in certain sectors while middle class remain unparalleled in most of the sectors of the country. Many of the people from the lower middle class work as labours abroad and they earn foreign exchange making the central bank reserve rich and replenished every month. The remaining labourers work at home-country, mostly in the agricultural fields producing food items and feeding the whole nation at large. So, all credit goes to them for sustaining and keeping up foreign exchange reserve, and food production at satisfactory level.
Mid-middle class and upper middle class, settled with sound economy, belong to dignified and intellectual group, and can afford to spend money after their children to be doctors, engineers, bureaucrats, writers, artists, journalists, social leaders, etc. And they are having their qualified children distributed to almost all the sectors of the state to run, in a word, playing the vital role to keep the country functioning with dynamism.
With the expansion of education and economic activities, the size of the middle class got increasingly expanded outstripping the size that existed during the early days of 19th and 20th centuries. While the Hindu middle class, despite of being small in size, was very rich, strong and creative. They advanced the society, took it very far by establishing many academic institutions like schools, colleges, and libraries across the land. Many adhered to teaching profession dedicating their whole life in learning and teaching. Simple life-style and high thinking concept was the guiding principle to move them forward in life. We can safely assume that middle class family, as of today, if compared, would not be found as strong as the previous one in terms of merit, efficiency and moralities. Admitted that honest, strong, and proficient middle class is crucially important to make the society progressed while the staggered class bereft of the required qualities as mentioned above is bound to bring about inevitable ruin keeping the society lagged behind.
Meritorious people are not rare in our society, some are found genetically meritorious also, what is lacking in, mostly observed, proper cultivation, exercise, nurturing of merit on time and in proper manner. Educational institutions are there for exercising and developing one’s potentialities and merit, atmosphere of which are not always congenial to the teachers and the taught. Academic environment has become polluted due to degenerative politics of students and teachers. Sometimes, academic premises turn into battlefields with display of firearms and lethal weapons. A section of teachers and students are believed to have been polarized and locked in two major political camps engaged in doing such deeds as to get their vested interest fulfilled. On the top of it, students could not escape them from the scourge of drug substances that are easily available from the peddlers in and around the campus.
Every year tens and thousands of students after having passed the SSC examinations with brilliant results are entering various academic institutions for higher studies. On completion, they have been joining different professions at different levels increasing the size of the middle class, although they hail from different background, cultures and religions.
Regrettably, students of this age, as opined by the educationists, have been deprived of quality education. Coaching centers have mashroomed everywhere, learning has been turned into coaching dependent-photocopying the better notes, committing them to memory, and securing good marks yielding GPA 5, Golden 5, and A plus tend to be the only motto of life. Many meritorious students can’t think of going ahead, getting admission for colleges and universities without the blessings of coaching centers that presumed to have been ruining the God gifted merits of our children. These commercial centers and admission-trade came into existence and pervaded the society in recent years, the existence of which were almost minimal 50 years back. What could be contributed by 5 thousand students at that time can’t be expected even out of 5 lac students of present time (as per researchers, authors and columnists).
Until 1881, all over Indian Sub-continent, Bangladesh, Myanmar, India, Pakistan, belonged to only three universities: Calcutta University, Bombay University and Madras University. Another new university named Punjab University kicked off its journey in the year 1882. There had been no such SSC and HSC education board as we have today. Matric and Intermediate examinations used to be conducted by the then universities.
Since the introduction of the British curriculum till 1883, twenty five thousand students with BA and MA pass certificates were available during 50 years period or more in whole of South Asian countries while the then India was populated with twenty five crores (As per reports of the Indian University’s Commission, 1902). Maintaining very high standard curricula, academic institutions then offered qualitative educations producing well educated persons who had been able to run the state machinery with grand success. Whatever achievements notice-worthy today were the contributions of those quality persons. So it is needless to say, a country like Bangladesh realizes that quality education needs to be imparted to our children who would be shouldering the responsibility of leading the country ahead.
We don’t have to go very far when more or less ten thousand students passed out from SSC level in our land, but this number including the HSC has reached to 19 lac 65 thousands in 2013. As per the researchers’ opinion, of them, if 15 lac students are properly trained up with commitments, Bangladesh could be built up as a self reliant country. It is our duty to make this huge number of meritorious students realize that Allah (SWT) has endowed them with unlimited potentialities needing nurturing, developing and improving with utmost care in order to be worthy persons for themselves and for the country as well. Sense of moralities and the spirit of humanity got to be instilled into them to serve the country to the best of their abilities. They would engage them in proper fields, work sincerely and play the main role to bringing about change on all sectors of the state.
In fact Allah (SWT) has created man to serve the humanity, perform honest services and to do propitious work towards mankind while man poses tendencies to be self centered in most cases. In holy Quran, we are told: “You are the best peoples, evolved for mankind, enjoining what is right, forbidding what is wrong, and believing in Allah. If only people of the Book had faith, it were best for them; among them are some who have faith, but most of them are perverted transgressors” (Sura Al Imran, Ayat 10). We must assume generous outlook, spirit of humanity, exercise friendship, love and affection towards all sections, no matter what background they belong to.
Presently, we are passing through a materialistic age that has been encouraging, pushing the youth into the enjoyment of luxurious life which is not at all desirable-as it will inevitably ruin their valuable lives. If middle class gets trapped into lustful life, the whole society is bound to be ruined leaving behind a devastating situation for all. The youth must practice simple living and high thinking as the great illustrious people did throughout their ages. Social scientists, civil societies, NGOs and all other agencies linked with the welfare of the society must come up with their comprehensive programs to motivate the youth and turn them into innovative and creative groups.
Presently Bangladesh is in a dire political crisis stemmed from power-battle, politics of clash and conflict. People of Bangladesh already underwent lots of sufferings during different regimes of last 42 years that they had never wished for. By this time, the country has experienced violence, murders, disappearances, arson, torching, extortions, sporadic fighting, embezzlement of public money and many other anarchism. Hopefully young generations would denounce and reject them and take the responsibility to bringing about change in the country.
It is extremely good luck that the country is producing about 20 lac meritorious students every year. In order to get the benefit from them, incumbents, as part of nation-building activities, would provide all sorts facilities to them for developing their merits and potentialities. We, the general public, as per our constitutional rights, expect our government to focus on the young generation turning them into a great asset of the country.
(The writers is ex Country Manager in Germany of Biman, Bangladesh Airlines.)
