Last week I was telling my more youthful brother in college, the opprobrium and awful viewpoints of infectious coronavirus disease 2019, already prevalently known as COVID-19.
At that time, he inquired me, "can't your varsity (University of Dhaka) discover coronavirus medicine?" He asked me this question after seeing a treatment strategy in social media proposed by three researchers at Dhaka University of Engineering and Technology (DUET, Gazipur) as an antidote to the coronavirus. I would like to summarize the answers I gave him as I did.
Dhaka University has superb and glorious past, is yet the best and traditional University in Bangladesh. Numerous meritorious students appear here after successful and most competitive entrance test. Once it was world class and truly comparable with Oxford University. Someone’s perception on it was as “Oxford of the East”. But exceptionally as a late, the reality has been sharply changed in this regard of true purpose of higher education. The university is declining irreversibly in terms of its research status.
Unfortunately, the transfiguration of the position from apogee to nadir has been reflected by the time passing with many reasons. The present situation is here, the most of the students turn out to be BCS or govt. job candidates four to five years after admission.
Some students pursue for scholarships for higher education overseas or a few strive for to be business visionary and entrepreneur by themselves. Nonetheless, that number may be limited. Despite having scientific research demeanor, a student of here remembers the research of the stomach before hearing about it. He/she considers finding job is more vital than research and that’s the genuine illustration for most students in our country. In this case, it can be blamed the prevalent poor education system and the dearth of work-oriented subjects.
An honors or masters-taught student doesn’t actually do research, he/ she learns from the research performed by the teachers or instructors and it’s competent at one point. At the time he’s no longer a student. In fact, it may be the standard rule that teachers will do the research in the university or they’ll do it with the students. Multiple grants are also made by the government or the University Grants Commission for conducting the proposed research of teachers. Some alleges this subsidizing is additionally little and destitute for innovative research. Moreover I've had a lengthy discussion about how much of the grant we're developing.
A further level of study is undertaken in higher education, such as PhD or MPhil degree. The research is about their syllabus. Shockingly, the framework hasn’t yet been coordinated here. Policy programs of Government, Universities and Industries couldn’t be integrated into further planning and implementing good research.
Nevertheless, its consistency is changing day by day. The government and the universities are trying fairly well for overcoming this situation. We assume that one day our research community will be approached in the same way as the developed world. We’ll also be looking for vaccines to prevent diseases such as coronavirus. It's just a matter of time. My younger brother asked me again how private university students do it, make robots, and occasionally get news on Facebook. This time I told him the basics.
In truth, most of the students from Dhaka University or other public universities come from middle class or some from lower classes. About 95% of students in residential halls take classes on tuition or various coaching. They have to spend a part of time exterior of think about research or study. Whereas being a student, many ought to pay attention of the family, I myself have given my family bolster and many of them have been seen to bear the fetched of the family.
I heard a professor at University of Dhaka telling about teacher politics, personal busyness and interest other issues other than scholastic. He said-“In my view, the curse of hiring a faculty member through politics and grouping is basically annihilating the teaching and research environment."
The above mentioned issues haven’t more often to be confronted by the students of private university. Private institutions don’t have a teacher politics or grouping as the teaching atmosphere isn’t disrupted. On the off chance the class of faculty doesn’t look fine, unprofessional, non-research oriented or inaccurate, the understudies may give their opprobrium which is like considering castle of air in public university.
In my supposition the world ranking of private university ought to be at the forefront, as making it easier for students to do research studies since they don’t bother with something. They can effortlessly be gulped the way you want to eat them. This is actually a positive aspect.
My younger brother once again asked me, "Well, brother, I caught on everything. But your responsibility for the prevention of the coronavirus is the foremost imperative because you studied pharmacy." There’s something to be done, even if you’re in intervention of a medicine or its detection kit that we desperately need.
I replied that the government closed down all educational institutions, including the university, to prevent the transmission of the coronavirus. Startling lockdown is underway in the country. This is undoubtedly a great decision. However, the government hasn’t formed any committee nationally with our existing scholars or scientists who are high-profile researchers at various research institutes or universities of the country, particularly biochemistry or molecular biology, microbiology, genetic engineering, pharmacy or biological faculty.
We aren’t properly utilizing the resources we’ve in this nation at the crossroads. There’re many research centers in the country and so many labs at universities, there’re some advanced labs, they can be used in small range and coronavirus detection kit can be still be done if the government wants. In this case our migrants scientists are there, they can help us too.
“Well, brother, what’s the good thing about recognizing the coronavirus only?” I included him, for the last one month, only one government institution IEDCR, was the as it were detection test center. It was too alleged to be inadequate and unmanageable and so on. A number of other labs have recently started to be set up and identified and it may be late.
Many doctors are perplexed of treating even general patients just because of the corona panic. At slightest this wouldn’t be an issue in case detected. The first step in preventing the transmission of coronavirus is to test it and if the patient is positive, he/she must be given immediate restorative care by isolation.
In reality, we’ve abundance deficiencies as well as many problems. However, this isn’t to say that we’ve nothing to do. It may be our instruction from the traditional March 7, 1971 discourse of our nation father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the most critical moment of our national life “everything we’ve has to deal with the enemy”. Even if the knowledge and resources we’ve are utilized legitimately, able to do much more. In this imperceptible war our chances of win will be proliferated numerous times.
Writer: Md. Jamal Hossain, a Pharmacist and Researcher, B. Pharm and M. Pharm (Thesis) from University of Dhaka.
Email: jamal.du.p48@gmail.com
BDST: 1622 HRS, APR 20, 2020
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