CHALLENGES IN
HIGHER AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH
Dr. M. Abul Kashem
Professor
Department of
Agricultural Extension Education
Bangladesh
Agricultural University, Mymensingh
mobile:
+88-01711-957 558
Introduction
Education is the process of
bringing desirable change into the behaviour of human beings (Singh 1994).
Kashem (2004), however, opined that education in any form is the production of
desirable changes in human behaviour as a result of his or her knowledge,
experience and the like. The changes in human behaviour among people may take
in three forms:
1. Knowledge development (Cognitive domain)
2. Attitude development (Affective domain)
3. Skill development (Psychomotor domain)
The Agricultural Knowledge and Information
Systems (AKIS) link people and
institutions to promote mutual learning and generate, share and utilize
agriculture-related technology, knowledge and information. The system
integrates agricultural education, farmers, researchers and extensionists to
harness knowledge and information from various sources for better farming and
improved livelihoods.
Rural people,
especially farmers, are at the heart of the Knowledge Triangle. Agricultural
education, research and extension are services – public or private – designed
to respond to their needs for knowledge with which to improve their
productivity, incomes and welfare and manage natural resources on which they
depend in a sustainable way.
Bangladesh is predominantly an
agricultural country where provision of food security, livelihoods improvement
and employment generation opportunities of the huge population of the country
are directly linked to the development of agriculture. Although Bangladesh is
an agro-based country, about 89% of total farm-holding is below 2.49 acres in
size.
Bangladesh, a country of about
165 million people with a population density of 1250 per square km, is an
agricultural country. Almost half of the total population is involved in
agricultural activities and more than one-third of the population is economically active in agriculture. Agriculture
is thus the backbone of the country and is the main driving force for its
economy, development and progress. The economic progress of Bangladesh is to
great extent dependent on the development of agriculture. However, due to increased
population, declining of per capita cultivable land, adverse effects of climate
change, and high price of agricultural inputs the development of agriculture in
Bangladesh is now at a great challenge. If the higher agricultural educational
institutions have to produce adequate, competent and skilled manpower who would lead the country
for its future agricultural development, these will have to face new challenges
to cope with new changes in the coming years to provide competent manpower to organizations
who are directly involved in agricultural production.
Present status of Higher
Agricultural Education in Bangladesh
At present the courses on
agricultural education in Bangladesh are being initiated from primary,
secondary, agricultural colleges and finally from the universities. Three year
diploma courses in agriculture are being offered from the 14 Agricultural
Training Institutes (ATIs) administered by the Department of Agricultural
Extension (DAE) and more than 140 private
ATIs across the country. Four year graduation degrees in agriculture,
veterinary science, animal husbandry, fisheries, agricultural engineering, food
engineering and agricultural economics are being offered from the four
Agricultural Universities, two Science and Technology Universities, Chittagong
Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Khulna University, Rajshahi
University and Dhaka University. The Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU)
is the oldest agricultural university in the country which was established in 1961
in Mymensingh. The course curricula of the BAU has been initially designed in
1961 for 5 year B.Sc.Ag.(Hons) degree after SSC including two year professional
courses; the major changes were made 1970 with the introduction 4 year
B.Sc.Ag.(Hons) degree after HSC. The course curricula of agricultural
universities had been designed almost in the light of the BAU. The course
curricula of the BAU and agricultural universities including Science and
Technology Universities from where agricultural degrees are offered have been modified
from time to time on a limited basis but time has come to have major changes in
the course curricula in order to produce quality and competent agricultural
graduates to meet the future challenges.
Challenges in Higher
Agricultural Education in Bangladesh
1. Changing the Course Curricula to Avoid
Duplication/Repetition
After initial
introduction of different courses at the undergraduate and post-graduate levels
no major changes have been made at the universities. In a recent study on the
alumni of the BAU across the country it was found that most of the alumni are
in the opinion that there are considerable duplication/repetition in different
subjects. They very specifically mentioned the names of some of the subjects
and suggested to replace the issues of duplication/repetition by some recently
emerging disciplines such as disaster management, biotechnology and genetic
engineering, office management, communication skill (oral and written),
computer skills, report writing and presentation skills etc.
2. Modification of Course Curricula to meet the Farmers’ Needs and
Aspirations
The course
curricula of the Agricultural Universities and Science and Technology
Universities have been prepared quite a long time ago although few changes and
modifications have been taken time to time on limited scale. However, during
the passage of time lot of changes have occurred in the environment,
agro-climatology and natural resources. The present course cannot address all
those which are the dire need of the country now, e.g. saline, drought, and
flood tolerant technologies. Disaster management: disaster preparedness,
mitigation and impact assessment of disasters etc.
3. Standard Students’ Assessment Procedure
Students’
performances are mostly assessed through memorization and understanding, which
cannot judge the creativity, ability for application of knowledge gained
through teaching, synthesize, compare
the ideas learned. Blooms (1956) and
Blooms and Anderson (1996) have identified (a) cognitive (knowledge), (b)
affective (attitude), and (c) psychomotor (skills) aspects of learning. In
cognitive aspect there are six dimensions: (i) remembering, (ii) understanding,
(iii) applying, (iv) analyzing, (v) evaluating, and (vi) creating. In affective
aspect there are five dimensions: (i) receiving, (ii) responding, (iii)
valuing, (iv) organization, and (v) characterization. Finally in psychomotor
aspect there are also five dimensions: (i) imitation, (ii) manipulation, (iii)
precision,(iv) articulation, and (v) naturalization. During the students’
performance assessment so far the first two dimensions of affective aspect i.e.
remembering and understanding are used in questions for judgment although
applied questions are occasionally used to prepare questions. However, in the
primary and secondary schools the application of creative questions is in use
for a number of years. At the university level, the application of all the
dimensions of cognitive, affective and psychomotor are equally needed. However,
improvement would not occur spontaneously, it may take time, but we have to
start the process immediately. Initially students may face difficulties but
with passage of time it would be a normal phenomenon to put the concepts of
Blooms and Anderson into practice, which is essentially needed.
4. Evaluation of Teachers’ Performance
At present, there
is no in-built mechanism to evaluation teachers’ performance at the
agricultural and other relevant universities. All teachers are equally treated
and evaluated during their promotion, nomination for scholarships, training,
participation in the conferences, seminar, workshops etc. Consequently no
competition among the teachers is observed. Every teacher knows that after
passing the required length of service he/she would get his/her promotion;
nobody can check it. This really a very disastrous for the universities;
without having any efficiency, commitment, skills and devotion to teaching one
can get the highest position in the universities. This should not be continued.
The university teachers have set and
approved charter of duties and responsibilities and work load per week, but
only few of them follow this. The per week work load of the teachers of the
Bangladesh Agricultural university (BAU), Mymensingh are furnished below as ready reference.
Ref. No. 2202(50)/Estt.,dated 29 April 1985, Bangladesh
Agricultural University, Mymensingh
Remarks:
a) Professor working as Dean may have 06 hrs
less from non-teaching assignments; teaching assignments remaining unaffected.
b) Teachers working as Head of Dept., Provost, Proctor, and
House Tutor may have 04 hrs less from non-teaching assignment, teaching
assignment remaining unaffected.
Ali
and Rahman (nd) in their study found that Less than half (45%) of the senior teachers
of BAU possessed good and excellent teaching quality while a quarter of the
population (25%) was very poor in teaching (Table-1)
Table
1: Classification of BAU teachers according to their overall teaching quality
Classification of teaching quality
|
Score
range |
Percentage
of teachers |
Excellent
|
≥ 80
|
17
|
Good
|
70-79
|
28
|
Fair
|
60-69
|
17
|
Poor
|
50-59
|
13
|
Very poor
|
≤ 49
|
25
|
Overall
|
27-94
|
100
|
There must be an in-built
mechanism for teachers’ performance evaluation. However, with the initiation of
HEQEP (Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project) administered by the UGC
and funded by the World Bank 26 projects are now in execution where there is a
mechanism for teachers’ performance evaluation. In fact after completion of
every course, teachers’ performance should be evaluated by the respective
students. Moreover, peer observation in the class by the senior teachers and
performance evaluation in respect of curricular, extra-curricular, students’
counseling, commitment to profession, sincerity, punctuality, adjustment to
situation etc. of teachers by at least senior teachers of the department should
be introduced. The task is of course difficult, but not impossible.
5.
Unified and Standard Admission Policies in the
Universities
At present the public universities have their own admission policies,
which differ distinctly from one to another. Some universities take admission
tests departmentally. The admission seeking students, sometimes with their
family members or relatives, move from university to university for attending
admission tests. This is not only the harassment to the students, but it also
leads to heavy financial pressure on many poor parents. It is also seen that a
meritorious student gets opportunity for admission to several universities and
medical college, where many students do not get chance to get admission to any
university. After getting admission, it is also seen that a notable segment of
the admitted students leave the university to get admitted to other university
or medical college, where he/she got selection. The universities usually
prepare a long waiting list from where the vacant seats are filled up. This not
only leads to financial losses of the university but also creates many
administrative hazzards. The admission policies at the universities have to be
changed and modified. The UGC of Bangladesh should take up the responsibility.
However, the UGC alone may not be the sole authority to execute this unless the
academicians, especially the Academic Council and Syndicate, of the respective
universities do not realize the problems and come forward to solve the
problems.
6. Quality Assurance in Higher Education
At present, so far
known, none of the universities in Bangladesh has Internal Quality Assurance
(IQA) so far known. But it should be now a mandatory component of each and
every university. IQA refers to processes and
procedures within the institution to review, evaluate, assess and to ensure the
quality of the education provided and/or research undertaken. Similar to the
IQA the Internal Quality
Monitoring/Audit/Review may also be used.
The purposes of the
IQA are:
§
Continuous improvement
§
Curriculum change and staff development
§
Public confidence and information
§
External profile
§
Encourage the development of quality systems and ensure compliance
§ Harmonize workloads
§ Consolidate
research activity and infrastructure
Fig. 2
|
Considering
the importance of IQA, the UGC has already proposed for the establishment of
Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) in each of the public and private
universities in Bangladesh in order to take care of the quality assurance of
education.
7. Recognition of Degrees by the Accreditation
Council
Accreditation is an act of granting credit or recognition, especially
with respect to educational institution that maintains suitable standards. The
purpose of registration of a HEI (Higher Educational Institution) is to certify
that an (i) institution is authorized to deliver a higher education courses or
degrees and considered to have necessary academic, financial, staffing, and
physical resource, and (ii) adopts good practices in higher education,
committed to uphold high standards & values and conduct regular internal
and external quality assurance.
Almost all the
countries in world except Bangladesh and only few developing and underdeveloped
countries have Accreditation Council of their own, which has approval and
recognition of the IARC (International Accreditation and Recognition Council). The UGC of Bangladesh has prepared a draft proposal for
establishing Accreditation Council Bangladesh (ACB), which is now lying with
the Ministry of Education for approval. The degrees offered by the universities
to the students would primarily be recognized by the Accreditation Council
Bangladesh (ACB) and finally by the International Accreditation Council.
Without recognition of the degrees the passed out graduates would suffer
seriously from getting scholarships, employment overseas, consultancies and
other facilities that could be their due rights and privileges because of the
degrees.
8. Rethinking of Banning Teachers’ and Students’
Direct Involvement in Politics:
It is known to
everyone that the public universities in Bangladesh , in some cases, are badly
affected by the teachers’ and students’ direct involvement in politics. Recent
unrest in some of the public universities is the distinct example of bad
effects of students’ and teachers’ direct affiliation with the national
political parties. The political
affiliation of the students and teachers very often creates unrest to the
universities leading to temporary closure to sine die and even it goes up to
fatal cases. It is not at all a congenial atmosphere for the universities for
nourishment and overall academic development. However, nobody can deny the
importance of leadership development among students through their participation
in different academic, cultural and recreational activities. These types of
students’ leadership activities can be exercised through democratic processes
i.e students’ representatives for central students’ union should be elected
non-politically and arrangements and atmosphere needs to be created for the
selection of best leaders. It is difficult to justify the way the students and
teachers sometimes are involved in direct political activities. There are
evidences that some teachers directly use and utilize the students to work in
their favour, instead, they provide undue facilities to the students and
consequently the academic atmosphere and administration collapse.
References
Ali, M. M. and M. W. Rahman (nd) Teaching Quality of the Senior Faculty Members
of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. (personal communication).
of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh. (personal communication).
BBS
(2012). Statistical Yearbook of
Bangladesh. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. Ministry of Planning,
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Kashem, M. A. (2004) Fundamentals of Extension Education. Mymensingh: The Lima Printing Press.
Singh, R. (1994). Extension Education. Ludhiana: Sahitya
Kala Prokashon.
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