Generally Afro-Asian people prefer to quote noted personalities in many occasions. Asia and Africa are blessed with many sages such as Gautama Buddha, Confucius, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Bangabandhu, APJ Abdul Kalam, Aung Sang Suu Kyi and many others.
The stimulant excerpt of Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader of South Africa as “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” envisages something for a country dreaming to be a prosperous one keeping harmony, peace, and tranquility intact.
Where the most educational institutions of the country except the pastoral ones are in serious impasse due to intermittent blockades and hartals, some institutions are still buzzing with freshers in the name of orientations. Some private Universities invite versatile educationists and think tanks either in orientation or in commencements as usually to grab the attention of potential students.
However, out of eighty private universities, a handful of them have already earned name and fame in the higher education arena. Let’s not debate mentioning any name rather vest the responsibility of choosing one from a long list only to guardians and students.
On last Saturday (January 24, 2015) I feel privileged to attend an orientation program of Southeast University at its permanent campus at Tejgaon area. I learned many things from many persons particularly from one distinguished personality of the program. His name is Dr. Cecep Effendi, a genius educationist and incumbent Director General of CIRDAP.
He shared the statistics of having PhD degree in one million people in six countries citing many reasons apart from education for their rosy possibilities.
According to his information, there are 60 PhD degrees for one million people in India while for the same number of people Pakistan has 70, Indonesia has 300, South Korea has 3,000, Japan has 5,000 and Israel has 16,000.
He branded the 21st century belonging to Asia for steering its development and urged the freshers to get prepared for the future challenges to lead from the front.
Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Anwar Hossain, in line with Effendi put forward the statistics of United States of America where he said that the country alone produces 30,000 PhD graduates every year and India produces around 6,000 while Bangladesh is even not producing 100 PhD graduates keeping it lagging behind.
Pro Vice Chancellor Professor Dr. Humayun Kabir Chowdhury also envisaged some ways of sparkling the talents of freshers with curricular and extra-curricular activities.
Chairman of Board of Trustees (BOT) Md. Rezaul Karim, who is also an leading industrialist uttered that BOT members do not take a single coin from the university rather the earned money is reinvested for the proliferation of the academic, research and extra-curricular activities. He urged the freshers to love their parents, respect teachers and serve the country having tremendous potentials.
Moreover, Deans of different schools and Registrar also kindled the idea for stimulation of the newly enrolled around 1,500 students telling them stories of success and failures of many great personalities across the world.
In the backdrop of existing stagnant politics, they also said violence never solves a problem rather the root cause of it is the discrimination and deprivation demanding immediate stoppage of it through successful dialogue. In the two hour long program the fresher were seemingly glimpsing the program with renewed dreamy eyes.
The Writer is Assistant Professor of Law and Moderator of the Law and Ethics Club at Southeast University, Dhaka.
BDST: 1342 HRS, JAN 28, 2015
