M. Sayem Ahmad :
Shipon and Yusuf are children of a middle class family. Lack of middle class family is a daily occurrence. And Shipon and Yusuf are continuing their studies keeping pace with the world of that lack. He was very interested in his studies from his childhood. In fact, both of them are very talented students. Always trying to learn with interest to learn something new. Shipon wants to be a senior officer in the country after finishing his studies. Family poles will improve. Just like that, Yusuf wants to finish his studies and get a good job. It will strengthen the weak pillars of the helpless family, illuminate the house by eliminating the lack of family. Although the words of Shipon and Yusuf are imaginary, such is the dream of millions of other students in this country in real life. But when they finish their studies and go for job test, that dream is shattered in an instant. Because, in our country, there are allegations of inferior work like corruption in the recruitment process and leaking of question papers. And when the enlighteners of the nation, i.e. the teacher society, are involved in these vile deeds, then it is a great responsibility to hear the message of hope to this nation. Because, recently some teachers of our country are getting involved in various misdeeds. As a result, the whole teacher society system is being questioned. Due to the decline of their ethics, the shadow of darkness has descended on the teacher society today. Being defiled is the past glory and dignity of the great profession. The tone of protest against them in everyone’s mouth. But at the end of the day no message of hope is heard but the helplessness of the job seekers is manifested and they are not able to achieve the desired success.
There are many more such job seekers. One of them is not to permanently increase the entrance limit or age for the job test. The Covid-19 or World Epidemic Corona virus is a curse for job seekers. Because everything in the world came to a standstill in Corona. The virus is also having a negative impact in Bangladesh. However, the most negative impact is on the education system. Because, in Corona, the students have lost their education for almost two years. In particular, elementary students have been deprived of their basic education. The question arises as to how they can compensate for such a push.
At the same time, the condition of job aspirants is also dilapidated. Many people have reached the age limit for applying for a job during the course of the coronavirus. Again many were near age. And to compensate for this time the government decided to introduce a system called “backdate”. Which only the job seekers of that time would enjoy but this system should have been made permanently universal. So that the students can get back the time lost from their educational life. The age limit for entering the current job in our country is 30 years. Reviewing the history of raising the age limit for entry into government service, In 1991, when the average life expectancy was 55 years, the age of entry into service was 26 and the retirement age was 56 years. In 1991, considering the situation of session jam, the age of entry into the job was changed from 28 to 30 years. And then in 1991 the average life expectancy was 56 years. Then in 2011 the retirement age increased to 59 and for the great heroic freedom fighters it was 60. Due to this 2-3 year increase in retirement, not many job advertisements have been published at this time. In these 30 years from 1991 to 2021, the average life expectancy has increased by 18 years to 63 years. But the age limit for entry into the job has not increased. Exactly in the previous position. In this case one more thing can be realised. And that is that the victims of discrimination are the ordinary students at the university level. Due to the long educational life of the doctors, the age limit for their application has been raised to 32 years. The age limit for employment is also 32 years for the children of freedom fighters covered under the quota. But even though the honors course at the university level was made four years instead of three years, the entry time for job application was not extended. So we can not say that the victim of discrimination in taking such a step? The question remains.
Unemployment rate is still very high in our country. Unemployment is a threat or a curse for a country. Because this unemployment is a big obstacle in the way of socio-economic development or overall development of the country. According to the latest survey by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), 4.2 per cent of the total workforce in the country is unemployed. Unemployment rate among undergraduate and postgraduate youth is 11.2%. At the higher secondary level this rate is 14.9 per cent. Unemployment rate among educated people at lower secondary level is 4.6 per cent and among educated people at primary level it is 2.6 per cent. In which the number of educated young unemployed is more. And one of the reasons behind being educated unemployed is that the age limit of employment has been exceeded.
If we review the age of entry into employment in other countries, we will see that the age of employment in our country is above 30 years. The age of entry into employment is 55 years in 155 out of 192 countries of the world. Again somewhere up to 59 years. In North America, a citizen can enter government service for 59 years. The maximum age for entry into government service in Sri Lanka, Indonesia is 45. In our neighboring country India too, the age limit for entry into employment is 35 years. As many developing countries as there are in the world, they are so advanced because the age limit for employment is above 30 in every state or country. So why are we lagging behind other countries in terms of working age? The question remains.
The words of helplessness can be heard on the faces of job seekers. But who will listen to them, who will think about them? One of the words of their helplessness is to reduce the application fee for the job test. Most of the job seekers are children of middle class families. Some are paying for their education by doing tuition or part time jobs. But because of the high fees, they are struggling to apply for the job test. Yet in the midst of so much hardship, there is no peace, no hope. Because at the same time announcing the date of job examination of different posts or ministries. As a result, they are not able to take all the tests and fail to achieve their desired success. In our country, job seekers have been agitating against various irregularities and corruption, including raising the age limit for permanent entry into employment. But nothing is happening at work. Rather just going with the assurance.
Therefore, the government should raise the age limit for permanent job seekers from 30 years to at least two years to 32 years and make the decision to increase the age in a system called “backdate” public without making any discriminatory decision. The government should give more importance to prevent any kind of irregularities and corruption in job examinations. Accurate results should be published along with the marks obtained in various recruitment examinations. Decide on something that is tolerable for job seekers by reducing the job application fee. At the same time, it is necessary to take timely decisions and implement them so that different posts are not tested at the same time and to reduce unemployment. The country needs to create more self-employment. As a result, job seekers will be able to reach the peak of development in the country as a result of their involvement in employment. Be able to keep pace with the world. Otherwise the quality of education will lag far behind in terms of development. Therefore, in the national interest, to build a jobless country, to evaluate the merits of the educated population, a timely decision has to be taken after listening to the helplessness of millions of job seekers like Shipon and Yusuf. Only then will it be possible for job seekers to achieve the desired success.
(M. Sayem Ahmad is a columnist
and essayist)
