Education and Its Future Potential: In Talk with Leading Educators
Valor of Bangladesh, a platform dedicated to bringing together country leaders from all possible sectors, recently started its journey. Its debut endeavor, 'Strategy Summit 2021' with the theme, 'In pursuit of A Better Tomorrow', presented by Mutual Trust Bank, powered by IPDC Finance, supported by Ispahani Group, in association with Zahedee Foundation, featured 12 sessions, each of them featuring a crucial topic relevant to Bangladesh's future with national icons shedding light upon them. One of them was Education which had myclassroom.online as panel associates.
Prof. Imran Rahman, the Dean of School of Business of ULAB and the moderator of this session, started by stating the main aspects of the session. They included the adoption of technology, challenges in upgrading education quality and achieving sustainability in this field. Dr. Camille Rutherford, the Vice Provost of Brock University, Canada, started the session with a presentation introducing the audience to her line of work. She then moved onto identifying Bangladesh's obstacles in creating a skilled workforce. Helpful insights like restructuring the nation's ICT, improving bandwidth, and making technology affordable for all were also tabled. Furthermore, she emphasized the lack of communication between educational institutes and industries in Bangladesh in creating a relevant curriculum. Training and adequately equipping the educators for better education quality were also brought up.
The next speaker in the session was Sabrina Shaheed, the Principal of Sir John Wilson School, who spoke out about the current situation in schools amidst the pandemic. She recognized the privilege some of the private schools are enjoying in quickly adapting to the digital realm. However, she also lamented how many schools fell behind in education due to a lack of proper technological facilities and funding. Furthermore, she emphasized relearning skills to utilize apps like Zoom and Google Meet for the education quality to sustain itself and improve. Above everything else, she urged all to focus on developing methods that can rekindle students' interest to pursue learning actively.
One of the leading educators in Bangladesh and the Director of Pride Group, Professor Mohammad A. Momen, was the next speaker. He talked about the methods IBA implemented to adapt to the digital era of learning. The lack of training among teachers for adapting to technology turned out to be the main reason behind why such difficulties arose in this sector. Moving on, he talked about how adapting to Learning Management System (LMS) had been easier for IBA due to their students already having the necessary technology. Although they had been showing quite a bit of success in adapting, much work is necessary in finding a proper evaluation system. He ended his portion by emphasizing on the necessity for continuous and consistent communication between educators and industry leaders for creating an efficient workforce.
One of the most influential educators in Bangladesh, Prof. Imran Rahman, the Dean of Research of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), was also present in the webinar. His take on the necessity of soft skills among students was especially eye-opening for the audience. He made an honest assessment about the average Bangladeshi's perception regarding university being the measuring scale for a student's worth. Furthermore, he requested to focus on strengthening Bangladesh's own existent resources rather than depending on foreign aid constantly. The session ended with everyone agreeing on working towards an education system that moves further away from the existing arcane education system and advancing towards industry-relevant content.
Comments