Higher education: Bane or boon for poor students?

Farook ahmed :
Now we can aver without the least hesitation that time has come for our policy-makers to re-think whether we should discontinue or limit the scope for higher learning for our necessitous students. The cost of higher learning and its fruitless results hang like grinding stones round the necks of our indigent parents. A random survey reveals that about 35 percent of rural farmers and 10 percent of small traders are steadily becoming landless and moneyless to defray the expenses of higher education of their wards. Money spent on higher learning could be justified if it could procure employments or provide means of earning.
The mushroom growth of private universities has paved the way for unbridled windows for so-called higher education. Tuition imparted by most of the private universities is not marketable in the competitive job markets. Hence the students who have passed out of these universities have to reconcile themselves with the glossy certificates issued by the universities. In the name of higher learning we are dumping them under the curse of perpetual unemployment.
It is learnt that Government has a plan to set up at least one university in each districts. The plan sounds very ambitious and tantalizing. We are already overburdened with so many institutions of higher education that any further addition will certainly push us to the brink of economic and social ruin. We may be seized with a catastrophe if we fail to realize that the alleged higher education is silently crippling the young generation of our country. How does it sound to hear that tens of thousands of university-educated young man and woman are without any jobs?
They are still burdens upon their family. Their parents have squandered their entire wherewithal on their ostensible higher education. Who is to hold responsible for this self-destroying plight of our young boys and girls. The private universities must take the larger share of the blame. Till now we know of no students of private universities who have ever qualified in the Bangladesh civil service exam or secured any first class government appointments.
This is because of the sub-standard schooling provided by the private universities. The principal aim of the private universities is to make money by any means. Most of these universities are not equipped with necessary accessories required for imparting education. The owners of the private universities regard their institutions as cash-cows. Milking the cow is their only vow. They do not engage competent teachers to save and filch money.
These universities fleece the students and their poor parents more cruelly than infamous shylock. They only produce benighted certificate-holder human breeds. The poor parents should not send their sons and daughters to universities for pointless higher education. They will be judicious to get their wards admitted into vocational schools and polytechnic colleges where they can learn practical and useful education. Hands-on technical knowledge will ensure jobs for their children and thus money spent on such education will invariably bear fruits.
(Farook Ahmed is an Ex-DIG, Bangladesh Police.)