2.1 Primary and Junior Secondary Level
The first five years and the next three years of education
constitute the Primary and Junior Secondary level respectively.
Bengali and English languages, History, Geography, General
Science, Mathematics and Religion are the major subjects taught
at these levels. Students become, in a very small scale, aware
of computers and their vast applications through their General
Science text books. Recently the Government has passed the
National Education Policy in the cabinet and endorsed it in
the Parliament. In the National Education Policy introduction
of IT education in primary and junior secondary level has
not been included in the implementation period of 2010. Majority
of the schools in the country cannot afford to buy computers
for their students. Though a small number of city based schools
have a very limited computer laboratory facilities, yet they
fail to make their students familiar with internet, emails
and related technology because of the lack of nationwide telecommunication
infrastructure and internet facilities. In addition, the school
teachers at these levels lack the minimum level of training
on IT. We recommend the following for the Primary and Junior
Secondary level students:
• General Science text books should adequately cover
fundamental concepts on computers and their numerous applications.
Differences between hardware and software, history of computers
and their use, classification of computers, concept of computer
network, internet and emails, introduction to computer peripherals
and input/output devices should be introduced.
• Short term intensive training on IT may be arranged
for the teachers at Primary and Junior Secondary levels.
• Until telecommunication infrastructure improves and
internet facilities are provided at school levels, communication
media like Television and Radio can regularly broadcast programs
showing hands on use of computers, emails and internet to
makeup the present deficiencies. A separate TV channel may
be dedicated to broadcast IT related programs 24 hours a day.
• Special care should be taken to improve the English
language ability of the students.
• Expatriate Bangladeshis may arrange to buy second
hand computers at either free or small cost and to distribute
them to schools at their home. Bangladeshi missions at abroad
may collect computers from expatriates and then send them
to Bangladesh by national fleet at free of cost.
• Gradually Computer Aided Education System and Learning
should be introduced at Primary and Junior Secondary levels.
2.2 Secondary and Higher Secondary Level
The 9th and 10th year of a school going student and the next
two years of a college going student constitute the Secondary
and Higher Secondary level respectively. Computer Science
education has been launched as an optional subject for the
Secondary level students from the beginning of 1994 and about
one hundred fifty schools were permitted to start up the subject.
Many more schools have shown interest and the quantitative
expansion of IT education in Secondary level is phenomenal.
The National Education Policy has recommended compulsory computer
courses from the secondary level of education. Some of the
important recommendations of the National Education Policy
are as follows:
• 5694 and 15,748 number of junior and secondary level
institutions as well as 922 colleges, 347 professional institutes
and 1462 mid level technical and vocational institutes will
be brought under IT education by 2010.
• Introduce IT education in the new 12 science and technology
universities being established by the Government.
• Highly educated and skilled teachers and trainers
will be brought from abroad on contract basis to meet the
present shortage of IT teachers and trainers in the initial
stage.
• Maintain standard and quality of IT education in both
the formal and non-formal sectors by introducing a nation
wide central examination system.
Board of intermediate and secondary education, Dhaka has launched
Computer Science education in 1991 as an optional subject.
Only a very few colleges offered Computer Science course at
that time. Nearly fifty colleges introduced Computer Science
course as an optional subject for science stream students
in the first quarter of 1994 and with the reduction of price
of computer hardware, this number is sharply increasing. Computer
Science subject has been introduced at Secondary level in
vocational training institutes of the country in 1995 and
the education has been gradually extended to higher secondary
vocational training institutes. Bangladesh Computer Council
has been implementing a project to introduce IT education
in secondary level institutions and also has been training
the teachers of these institutions. Already about 500 schools
have been brought under this scheme and another 700 schools
will be taken up this fiscal year. BCC will also provide high
quality IT training for school and college teachers as soon
as its standard training centers become operational in the
divisional head quarters. However, the shortage of qualified
trainers will have to be solved first in order to make this
project successful.
The lack of trained teachers, laboratory facilities, internet
and email connection and above all incomplete and not up to
date course curricula is seriously hampering the IT education
in Secondary and Higher Secondary levels. The problems in
the first three areas can be remedied by following the recommendations
described in section 2.1. Course curricula should be revised
at intervals of not more than two years. As a result, application
packages and programming languages which are being taught
in these levels can be updated on a regular basis. A significant
portion of Laboratory marks should be allotted to a large
programming project which the students are expected to develop
phase by phase following a systematic software development
cycle. Computer assembling and trouble shooting may be incorporated
at Higher Secondary level. As a result students who fail to
step into higher education may have an opportunity develop
their career as hardware assembler. National contest on hardware
and software and on programming skill can be arranged at least
once in a year. Like Science week IT week can be observed
through the country to promote and inspire IT education at
the grass root level of the society.
2.3 Diploma Level and Training Institutes
Twenty polytechnic institutes of the country are offering
three year Diploma course for SSC passed students in Engineering
subjects. Three polytechnics of the country have launched
three years diploma in Computer Engineering in 1994. Board
of Technical Education has started a project for developing
course materials for Computer Engineering Diploma. For most
of the cases, semi skilled personnel have been chosen for
course material development which would have serious adverse
affect on human resource development and which has already
caused under utilization of funds. Bangladesh Open University
is now offering three semester Diploma in computer applications.
In the recent years Ministry of Youth has established 69 computer
training institutes over the country under a project for self
employment generation of the educated unemployed youths in
the field of IT.
There are more than 1000 training institutes at private sector
initiative producing different categories of IT professionals.
Many of them are franchised institutes of NIIT, APTECH, CMC,
TULEC, NCC and many other foreign institutes. It is reported
that many of these institutes are taking high fees from the
students and are not maintaining minimum standard. To prevent
this BCC is planning to introduce IT diploma Central Certificate
Examination system to establish a standard in the country.
She is also thinking of introducing affiliation and accreditation
system. These issues have been discussed many times over the
years., but yet to be implemented. These steps should be realized
without any further delay to promote a healthy atmosphere
in IT education and training. Many entrepreneurs think that
Government intervention will hamper the usual growth in IT
sector. However most of the common people including the author
believe that some form of central control and standardization
is necessary to save our poor people from cheating as well
as to prevent the unwanted growth of semi skilled so called
IT professionals.
2.4 Undergraduate and Post Graduate Level
2.4.1 National and Public Universities and Institutes
Bangladesh University of Engineering and technology (BUET)
first introduced the formal education in Information Technology
in 1984 by launching the Masters program in Computer Science
and Engineering. Undergraduate courses started from 1986 with
the first intake in 1987. The initial enrollment was 30 per
year which has been subsequently increased to 60 and now the
intake is 120 per year. It has been observed that with a very
few exceptions the very best students get enrolled in this
department. BUET is now running six batches consisting of
a total of 350 students and already a total of 250 students
graduated from this department. Masters program in BUET attracts
50 students per year and until now around 70 students have
completed their postgraduate curricula.
Dhaka University started their one year Masters program in
Computer Science in 1993 with a total of 20 students and the
present enrollment in this program is around 31. Dhaka University
started their Undergraduate program in 1995 and at present
their yearly intake is 60. Besides, some Computer related
courses such as Microprocessors and programming languages
are taught in Applied Physics and Electronics department.
Following the introduction of formal courses in Computer Science
in BUET, other public Universities came forward to start undergraduate
curricula. For example, Rajshahi and Jahangir Nagar University
established Computer Science department in 1993 and the first
batch graduated in 1998. Their yearly intake is 50 and 30
respectively. Khulna University and Shahjalal University of
Science and Technology introduced undergraduate program in
1991 and 1992 respectively and their yearly intake was 20
and 30 respectively. Their current intake is 40 and 120 respectively.
In 1999 four Bangladesh Institute of Technologies (BITs) introduced
undergraduate program in Computer Science and Engineering
with each individual BIT's intake is 60 per year. Chittagong
university has started Computer Science department this year
with a total of 30 students. Islamic Institute of Technology
run by Organization for Islamic Countries (OIC) has launched
four years B.Sc. course in Computer Science and Information
Technology from 1999 and the yearly intake is around 40. Besides
Bangladesh National University is now offering four year B.Sc.
Honours course in Computer Science for a total of 1250 students
at 25 colleges and institutions. Additional 300 IT graduates
are expected to be produced by the six proposed science and
technology universities by the year 2010.
The major similarity among the public Universities and institutes
is that the very meritorious students get enrolled in Computer
Science departments. The major and the biggest problem is
the acute shortage of faculties in the aforementioned universities.
The lack of internet and email connection for students, insufficient
laboratory facilities, lack of books and journals, absence
of interaction with the industries are the main bottlenecks
to the achievement of international standards in our undergraduate
curriculum in Computer Science and Information Technology.
We recommend the following measures to improve this grave
situation:
• There should be uniformity in course curricula and
degree requirements. Course curricula should be revised at
no more than two years intervals.
• At present, most of the software are web enabled and
they work in internet environment. Lack of intensive internet
facilities at Universities are depriving students from learning
web enabled software and applications. In addition they are
deprived of getting enormous amount of information from the
internet which is seriously hampering their research and development
activities If the present situation continues, our students
will soon become outdated with respect to this rapidly changing
world.
• High speed campus backbone network is a prerequisite
for present day computing. Since the internet speed is prohibitively
slow, off line down loading and subsequent storage in a central
server may give access to the students with their requisite
information in a relatively short time. In addition, high
speed campus backbone network will change the work environment
quite dramatically and routine official and academic jobs
will be done more efficiently and smoothly.
• Since there is an acute shortage of qualified teachers,
an international faculty appointment or exchange programme
is to be immediately start. Expatriate Bangladeshis working
abroad may be invited as visiting faculties at least once
a year. If such opportunities are created, many Bangladeshis
will be interested to come forward to disseminate their expertise.
• Postgraduate program should be strengthened. Most
of the graduates leaving the country for higher studies are
not coming back. A rigorous and standard postgraduate program
will be able to encourage more students to complete their
higher study in the country and eventually fill up the current
vacuum of qualified teaching stuffs.
• Laboratory facilities should be considerably increased.
Extra allocation in yearly budget should be reserved for Computer
Science departments. At present Computer Science departments
are treated as any other department within a University and
their special need is most often completely ignored.
• Books and journals should be made available in the
University libraries.
• Short term internship with the industry will be very
much beneficial for the students. In the academic body of
the universities, industry representatives might play a constructive
role.
• Number of students in different Computer Science departments
have recently been doubled at the instruction of the Government.
However, ironically Government has not allocated any extra
funds to increase infrastructure and logistic facilities which
have aggravated the present poor condition of the departments.
The present demand needs many more students to be shifted
from other disciplines to Computer Science and at the same
time the logistic facilities should be proportionately increased.
• Government has allocated 15 crores of taka to five
public universities for starting post graduate diploma programme.
We believe this money will be more fruitfully utilized if
it is used to increase the number of seats in Computer Science
departments for a long term benefit. It is to be understood
that university graduates will form the backbone of our IT
sector in the long run. India is very successful in IT sector
because she has given highest emphasis on university education.
2.4.2 Private Universities and Institutes
Recently a number of private universities have been established
with Computer Science as their major department because of
the tremendous demand of this subject among the college passing
students. North South University (NSU), the first private
University in Bangladesh, launched undergraduate program in
Computer Science in 1993 with 30 students in their first batch.
Currently students are getting admitted thrice a year and
in 1999 their total intake was 109. A total of 70 students
have already graduated from NSU and it has plan to start Computer
Engineering curricula by 2001.
AMA International University of Bangladesh (AIUB) established
in 1994 is offering Bachelor program in Computer Science,
Computer Engineering and Management Information System. Their
yearly intake is around 100. Ahsanullah University of Science
and Technology (AUST), established in 1995, offers undergraduate
program in Computer Science and Engineering. Their yearly
enrollment is around 150 and the first batch of 45 students
graduated in 1999. The total number of students in this discipline
is now around 500.
University of Asia Pacific, established in 1996, is offering
undergraduate program in Computer Science and Technology and
in Computer Science and Informatics. Their intake is around
80 per semester. East West University, established 1n 1997,
is offering Bachelor degree in Computer Science and their
yearly intake is 180. Queen's University established in the
same year is offering Bachelor degree in Computer Science
and Engineering and currently around 475 students are studying
at this University. Asian University of Bangladesh, established
in 1999, is offering undergraduate program in Computer Science
and Engineering with yearly intake around 100. Comilla University
started offering Masters in Computer Application in mid 1998
and their present enrollment is 120 per semester. Islamic
University at Chittagong has established Computer Science
and Technology department under Modern Science in 1995 and
their intake is around 50 students per year. Independent University
of Bangladesh is offering four years degree in Electronic
and Computer Science and their yearly intake is around 90.
Private Universities are seriously suffering from an acute
shortage of teaching stuffs. They are mainly run by part time
teachers. A student needs to earn 161 credit hours to graduate
from Computer Science and Engineering department of BUET whereas
he/she needs to earn a much smaller credit hours (in the range
of 120) to graduate from a private University. BUET needs
extra credit hours because it needs to teach the students
some extra foundation courses on Mathematics, General Science
and Humanaties to cover up the shortage in Secondary and Higher
Secondary levels. Degree requirements at private Universities
in terms of total credit hours earned should be as stringent
as that of BUET to maintain the uniform standard. The tution
fees of most of the private Universities are prohibitively
high, therefore only well off students can take admission
into private Universities. However, most of the private Universities
do not suffer from session jam and they are maintaining their
academic calendar quite nicely.
3 Research Activities
For the last 4 years vigorous efforts have been made to improve
the condition of IT education and research. Since 1997 conferences
both national and international have been organized successfully
with publication of 64, 56, 60 and 65 papers respectively
with the participation of renowned academicians from abroad.
Topics of the presented papers in these conferences include
Machine Learning, Pattern Recognition, Algorithms, Bangla
Text Processing, Microprocessors and Microprocessor based
System Design, VLSI Design, Networking and Communication and
so on. The first national conference on Information Technology
was held at Dhaka University in 1997. Then the first International
Conference on Computer and Information Technology was organized
by BUET in 1998. After a grand success in this conference
and participation of renowned academicians from abroad encouraged
Shahjalal University of Science and Technology to organize
it for the second time in 1999. This international conference
has now turned into an annual event and this year (year 2000)
North South University has been given the responsibility to
organize it. Very encouraging observation in these conferences
is massive and strong participation of the undergraduate students.
For more than 75% papers undergraduate students are the co-authors.
About 15 undergraduate students of Computer Science and Engineering
department of BUET have published their papers in reputed
international journals while still undergrads. Many of them
regularly participate in national and international conferences.
For the last 4 years the undergraduate students are massively
participating in co-curricular activities like world's biggest
and most prestigious ACM Programming Contests. BUET students
have qualified to participate in the World Finals for the
4th time in a row. This year BUET students participated in
IIT Kanpur ACM regional programming contest securing 1st position.
Last year BUET and Dhaka university students participated
in IIT Kanpur ACM regional programming contest securing 1st
and 2nd positions respectively. Last year BUET team occupied
the 11th position in the world final.
4. IT Education and Training
IT Training usually spans a short period of time and it attempts
to develop specialized skill in a vendor specific product.
Training is important to adapt oneself with the rapidly changing
technologies and it broadens the job opportunity of a computer
professional in both national and international job market.
The needs and subject of choice in IT training rapidly evolves
with time and an area which is very lucrative now may turn
out obsolete in one or two years time. However, education
offers a much broader area of knowledge and sustains over
a much longer period of time. The core technology underpinning
the present development in IT are taught in an educational
institution. Therefore, the knowledge acquired by a University
student does not get obsolete so easily. Rather if that student
remains aware of the changes that are taking place in IT,
he can always fruitfully contribute to the IT industry. On
the other hand, training cannot offer a student the requisite
background knowledge required to understand deeply the training
materials. Therefore, a strong educational background in IT
can only ensure the development of skilled manpower in this
sector. Semi skilled manpower can be developed through training
and they may be employed in special purpose jobs for meeting
short term needs, but in the long run University graduates
with good IT educational background is an absolute necessity
for the true development in IT sector.
5. Conclusion
Bangladesh Government has given the highest priority on IT
so that she can emerge as a major software exporting country
in a minimum span of time. Keeping this objective in mind,
most of the Universities have recently increased the number
of students in this field. However, the annual output of IT
graduates is still much lower than the present need. However,
only increasing the number of annual enrollment in Computer
Science education will do more harm if it is not accompanied
by a proportionate increase in laboratory, internet, classroom
and other logistic facilities. We have made several recommendations
for the rapid establishment of strong IT educational infrastructure
at every level of education. Implementing these recommendations
without any further delay may bring our goal into reality.
References
• Abdus Sobhan, M. Policy issues to capacity building
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"Human resource development in Information Technology
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• Chowdhury, J. R. Information Technology in Bangladesh;
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• Chowdhury, J. R. Problems and Prospects of Software
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• Hanif Bin Azhar, Abdus Sobhan, M., Lutfor Rahman,
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