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Brain drain - a threat
Tawsif Anam Zoheb
10/16/2005
“The world has become small"-- is a saying that used to confuse me very much even a few years back. I used to wonder how the world could become small. As I grew up, I got the answer automatically. Today, in the world where each moment technology is continuously developing, communication and transportation have become very convenient. Gone are the days when travellers and explorers had to cross hundreds and thousands of miles on the back of horses, camels, donkeys, or had to make long voyages in wooden vessels in order to go to faraway lands, and had to wait for months and even years before the explorers could come back home and meet family and friends. The world really has become smaller.
In the context of Bangladesh, the topic that I look forward to discussing is "brain drain". Decades back, only a very insignificant number of people of Bangladesh were fortunate enough to be able to go abroad for higher studies. During the British reign, only some belonging to the richest of the families had the opportunity to go outside the Indo-Pak sub-continent for higher studies. Even in the period when our motherland wore the tag of East Pakistan, mobility of citizens in and out of the country was low. With the elapse of time, things have changed. It is now a very common scene to see students of schools, colleges and universities preparing to and eventually going abroad for higher studies. Not only this, students also have the opportunity of choosing from a wide range of countries before taking their decisions about where to go for studies.
Bangladesh does not have adequate resources to build sufficient up-to-the-mark educational institutions to fit in such enormous number of students. Moreover, political disorder and social unrest have added to and fuelled the loss of confidence of students and their guardians on the educational environment of Bangladesh. As children grow up, their parents think of the best for them. Deciding about what type of education would be best for their children, a lot of speculation is needed. Moreover, these children grow up and develop the power of searching the best option for them. In this case, they have at their disposal, and at relatively low costs, the hi-tech facilities of Internet and television. It does not take much time for students to gather information about educational institutions and their respective method and standard of education from all over the world. There are countries like Canada and Australia that encourage foreign citizens to migrate to their countries and there are numerous universities that provide scholarships. With the availability of these information, students are bound to get attracted to their good prospects in foreign countries. Along with all these, in order to help students to make their dreams come true by successfully seeking education in a foreign country, private coaching centres providing courses on SAT, TOEFL and IELTS have mushroomed all over the country, though concentrated mainly in Dhaka City.
In recent time, some factors have affected the trend of Bangladeshi students going abroad. Terrorist attacks in the USA, a country that has been and still is a favourite of emigrating Bangladeshi students, have depressed the trend. Following the 9/11 attacks, the bomb blasts in England have now made it even more difficult for foreign students to go to the USA and the UK because managing visa is now not that easy. Students, determined to study abroad but not quite able to make it to the far West, are not giving up hope. The emerging education sectors in countries of the East, like Japan, Malaysia and Singapore, are helping them to realise their dreams. The students who have the merits and are backed up by financial strength and sometimes by scholarships are going abroad for higher studies and once they get the taste of success there, they are often reluctant to return home.
Another major disadvantage that we have and that adds to brain drain is our job market. The job market provides a lower number of jobs than the job seekers require. Moreover, the job market provides certain types of jobs only, and in accordance with that the types of education the students seek, the degree or variety of jobs has somewhat diminished. Students with the aim of studying genetic engineering, history, literature, philosophy, zoology, botany, astronomy, cosmology etc. have the least probability of getting jobs in Bangladesh. Thus, the scope of attaining standard education on these subjects and finding respective jobs in these fields are almost impossible. But in this age of Internet and technology, students are aware of the availability of standard education on the mentioned and other such subjects and also related job opportunities in countries abroad. Thus they would have an inclination to go abroad.
Moreover, the job market of Bangladesh fails to provide adequate salary for the prospective candidates, thus making the persisting situation of brain drain worse. The country is suffering from inflation, and the wage payments are not rising in line with inflation. This results in a fall in real income. Most of those in employment are suffering from this. The worst affected are those employed in the public sector. Only a small part of the workers in the private sector, especially those employed in renowned international or multinational companies enjoy high salary and extra facilities from their respective firms. But job opportunities in foreign countries offer more variety and the provision of high salaries and better facilities. Thus, when students go abroad for higher studies, after the completion of studies up to a certain level and after the achievement of their desired degrees, they prefer staying and getting employment in those countries because they aim at a higher standard of living.
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(zoheb_anam@yahoo.com)
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