What makes the difference between a Dakat and Soldier?
The teachers at our universities should know that their professional responsibility includes that the graduates from these universities do not become dakat, rather they becomes responsible professionals. Ethics should be included in each and every curriculum taught in the universities and colleges. They themselves should act as a role model for their students so that the graduates from their institutions do not go out in the soceity to find ways to cheat the citizens, rather to serve them.
There was a time when people would need physical strenghth to take away the wealth of others, to rob. The stories of different infamous pirates are there in the history who would do such things - take away other's money and property by using force.
Just like any other time, there were also a different type of people who would protect general people from those pirates. These people were also trained to use physical force to protect people from the pirates, albeit with a different purpose.
How do you differentiate these two groups? Off course, this is not an easy task. You have to go back and find out the 'ostads' or gurus of these people. Tactically these two groups of people might be in the same level, but based on who teaches them, they would become either pirates or soldiers.
Fast forward to current times - a time when you no longer need physical strenghth to take away the wealth of others, to rob. You only need to be a person with office - either your power comes from the knowledge you know or your power comes from the office you hold. Using the knowledge or using the power of office, a professional can act either as robber or as a soldier as far as general citizens of the country is concerned. Similar to the previous times, when you go to a office for getting a service, you have no way to know whether its a robber or a soldier whom you are facing. You would only know after you have been served!
Wait, can't you apply the same rule as was applicable in the old times, i.e. can't you go back and find out the 'ostads' or gurus of these professionals to find out how these people might behave (either a robber or a professional) ? Say for example, if you go to RAJUK and find a engineer who graduated from BUET, can you make a guess whether this engineer will be a robber or a professional with ethical behaviour? Or may be if you go to a doctors office and you find out that this person is a graduate from DMC, can you make a guess wehther this doctor will be a robber or a professional with ethical behaviour?
In ideal world, you should be able to make an educated guess by looking at the curriculum of the institutions along with other relevant track records including those of the teachers of those institutions. If you look at the teaching methodologies, topics related to professional ethics that is present in the curriculum, those will give you an idea about what to expect. Off course, professionals are human beings, not robots. So there will be exception when your guess might not be correct. However, in case of a good institution, you should be able to confidently say with certain level of probabilistic certainty that an alumni of institution X should be a good professional. That is probably true in most of the institutions of the world, specifically in those countries who are developed.
But not the same in Bangladesh. In here, if you look at the curriculums of most of the programs, there is no talk about professional ethics. Nor the teachers are peoples who can be called a role-model. So, what do you get?
You will have to just step into any offices - be it in government or in private institutions. There is nothing like professional behavior. They act at the will of their bosses. Or boss's boss. Or boss's wife. Or boss's son.
Off course, some act against the will of their bosses. In this category, you will find people of both categories, those who to act professionally and those who act as robber.
These professionals are just like "boti" or knife in the kitchen. They can be used to prepare your meal or you could use them to kill, too!
We really hope that the teachers of different instituations will start a process of soul searching - to find out what they have been doing wrong in Dhaka University, BUET, Dhaka Medical College and off course in their peer organizations, so they can't tell what their graduates will become when out in the workforce. Things should be done both at the personal level and at the institutional level, that can reverse the trend for betterment of the nation. The sooner they start it, the better.
Like all the good turnarounds, this should start with saying sorry to the nation. Tell the nation that you have failed the millions of people who pay for your salary so that you can provide subsidized education to your students (most of whom are becoming robbers, instead of professionals) .
In this sad story, each segment of the society has a pie in the failure cake. The biggest pie of the failure, off course, belong to the politicians of the country. They are paying for their mistakes now - to some extent. However, the nation haven't heard any sorry from them, yet.
We hope, as the bibek of the naion, you should start the process of reversing the trend. Say a sorry to the nation - from each of the teachers' association of each institution - if you feel that your graduates have failed in delivering their duties. Take the responsibilites of your graduates' failures - that will not lower your status - but raise your moral status with the nation. Someone start the process, please. If you, the teachers take the moral high ground and lead, we are sure that other segments of the society will also follow-on.
If you thought some of the ideas are worth of your reading time, please forward it to others. If you have an ear to the columnists in regular traditional media, please forward it to them. If you have an ear to the journalists and news editors of the electronic media, discuss it with them. Hope they would look at the suggestions and give due diligence.
Thanks for your time,
Innovation Line
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Note: This is a freelance column, published mainly in different internet based forums. This column is open for contribution by the members of new generation, sometimes referred to as Gen 71. If you identify yourself as someone from that age-group and want to contribute to this column, please feel free to contact. Thanks to the group moderator for publishing the article as Creative Commons contents.
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