Academic Discrimination in Bangladesh

Discrimination in Tertiary Education

After the august 5 revolution, the biggest beneficieary of the protests have been Dhaka University students. Other public university students also got a big chunk of the pie. But what about the private university students?

Other than the quota reduction and increase of the public service age to 32 years, we didn't get anything significant. Public universities get a lot of funding in addition to the operating costs and development funds. When it comes to research funds, why should public university students get such preferential treatment?

They shouldn't if the government is seriously thinking about ending discrimination or at least minimizing it. But since public universities have "connections" with the government, this keeps going on and on. Often, private university students don't even get notified of many opportunities as the government kind of assumes they are not going to get it.

This has been going on since the last 10 years or more. Maybe 10 years ago, there weren't that many private students and private universities also had questionable teaching practices. But even after private universities made progress in technical skills, the practice of discrimination remains.

I don't deny that many private universities have questionable grading practices that let less qualified students cheat their way to graduation. The same happens in public universities as well, especially the newer ones built primarily for the purpose of corruption. This is largely the result of lack of oversight by accreditation authorities. The previous Awami government was primarily focused on constructing university buildings rather than developing skilled professors. This is understandable considering how rampant corruption was in megaprojects. Building low-quality universities could certainly generate millions in bribes for them.

While the previous government's corruption weakened the quality of public universities and their education system—partly due to corruption in hiring teachers, lecturers, university office staff, and in the procurement of lab facilities—private universities have made significant progress in improving their quality of education. Many students from institutions such as BRAC University, North South University, Daffodil International University, and the University of Asia Pacific have successfully secured opportunities for higher education at top 1000 ranked universities in the world.

It's truly unfortunate that the government doesn't provide more research grants and support to private university students, which leads to them going abroad and accelerating brain drain. The grants the government does provide are buried under bureaucracy and are difficult to access. Often, the bureaucrats managing these programs lack expertise in the relevant subjects.

Discrimination Against Polytechnic Students

There is also dicrimination in admission to public universities. Polytechnic students are not allowed to take the test. Why should this practice continue? Why shouldn't the poly students be allowed to take the admission test? Do they not have a equivalent education to hsc?

Now, lets ask AI and see if its going to be able to answer that:

Academic discrimination in Bangladesh manifests in various forms, impacting students from marginalized backgrounds. Factors such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and geographic location often contribute to unequal access to quality education.

Unequal Access: Disparities in educational opportunities exist between urban and rural areas, as well as among different socioeconomic groups.

Admission Bias: Some institutions may exhibit biases in their admission processes, favoring students from privileged backgrounds.

Resource Disparity: Unequal distribution of resources, including qualified teachers and infrastructure, affects the quality of education in different regions.

Language Barriers: Students from non-Bengali speaking communities may face challenges due to the dominance of Bengali in the education system.

Addressing these issues requires comprehensive reforms to promote equity and inclusivity in the education sector, ensuring that all students have the opportunity to succeed academically.

Response by Gemini.

Looks like AI isn't taking my job anytime soon. The response above is what your typical liberal outlet like Prothom Alo or DailyStar would want you to believe.