‘We Are Far Behind Our Neighbouring Countries in Terms of the Quality of Education’

Professor Golam Sarwar Chowdhury (GSC): Thanks. I did my Master of Arts from the English Department at University of Chittagong in 1980. I joined the English Department at University of Chittagong in April 1981 as a Lecturer. It was my dream to teach Literature while I was a student at the same university. I taught English and American literature, linguistics and theories in the English Department, University of Chittagong. In 1987 went to the United States of America with a Fulbright Scholarship and did my MA and completed the PhD Course Work at the University of Texas at Dallas from 1987 to 1992. Then I returned to Bangladesh and resumed my teaching job at University of Chittagong. 

AA: You taught English language comprehensively in some other institutions too besides University of Chittagong. Please share with us your experience. 

GSC: I worked for British Council on an international contract from 2004 to 2010. I am a first generation IELTS Examiner of British Council inducted as an Examiner in 2003. I took early retirement from University of Chittagong in 2004 and joined as Professor in the Department of English and Humanities at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) in 2010.  After working for ten years at ULAB, I joined the Department of English at Notre Dame University, Dhaka in 2020. Notre Dame University is different from other private universities in Bangladesh. This university is run by the Fathers of the Holy Cross and is a 100% non-profit Institution of higher learning. Notre Dame University does not run its activities only for admitting students. The university aims to upgrade the quality of education and to generate graduates with required skills and knowledge which they can utilize for succeeding in their own lives as well as for the betterment of the society they belong to. 

AA: You are affiliated with some prestigious international organizations. I would request you to narrate this aspect of your professional life in brief. 

GSC: I was directly connected with the establishment of the Bangladesh Association for American Studies or BAAS which was founded in 1984. Professor Dr. Syed Anwar Hossain of the History Department, University of Dhaka, and the late Professor Imtiaz Habib, of the English Department, Dhaka University, were among others, who played significant roles in launching BAAS. Our goal was to promote American Studies to the students and teachers in Bangladesh’s colleges and universities. BAAS organized a great deal of workshops and conferences to promote American related disciplines in Bangladesh. Today you will find American Literature being taught in every English Department at the public and private universities of Bangladesh.  Even colleges under the National University teach American Literature in their English Departments.   

AA: Across Bangladesh students learn English from class one to their last day in academia which is around 16 years but still most of the students are much too unskilled in English speaking and writing. In most of the western countries foreign languages are not generally taught for longer than 4 or 5 months which I have witnessed but they speak these languages fluently. What’s the reason behind this substandard plight of English language teaching and learning in Bangladesh?

GSC: You are right. English is taught from primary schools up to universities all over Bangladesh, but most of the students have very poor English language skills. First, we have not been yet able to determine whether English is a foreign language or a second language. In my view English is a second language. In Europe a student learns three languages at least. These languages include their mother tongue and two foreign languages. In our country the approach to teaching English language is very much weak and defective. We don’t have good teachers because teaching is one of the lowest paid jobs in Bangladesh. A primary school teacher receives only seven thousand taka as monthly salary whereas a rickshaw puller earns around 30 thousand taka every month. Under these circumstances, talented and competent people are not at all interested to become teachers. For the same reason we are far behind our neighbouring countries when it comes to the quality of education. India and Pakistan have established some world class universities but we have not been able to do so. Less than 2 percent of our annual GDP is allocated for the education sector in Bangladesh whereas it is 15% in Malaysia and Thailand. Moreover, teachers are not paid the due honour they deserve in our society. In Bangladesh’s warrant of precedence, University Vice-Chancellors and full Professors are placed behind Secretaries to the government. These senior bureaucrats, judges, politicians and employees who hold Masters Degrees were all university students.  Therefore, it is a shame to relegate senior academics in the warrant of precedence.  It is better to exclude Vice-Chancellors and Professors from this Warrant of Precedence because Universities are not a part of the Establishment.  Without high quality education we cannot break out of the poverty cycle.  I expected the initiation of a reform in education by the present interim government; but they are no different from the previous governments in neglecting education. In Bangladesh whichever direction we look at, we find bureaucrats, civil administrators, military services, law and order forces and big business conglomerates dominating the society. We don’t see any congenial ambience for authors, poets, researchers, scientists or pedagogues. These are signs of an unhealthy and decomposing society. 

AA: Thank you Sir for speaking to The Asian Age and for nicely addressing the relevant issues. 

GSC: You are welcome.