Universities must do their part to improve teaching and learning

Given the myriad of complex problems of higher education in Bangladesh, it's a miracle that anyone learns anything inside university classrooms; yet, many graduate and become quite successful. So, would that not be a reason to celebrate the success of the system and of the teachers? No, not quite: those who eventually become successful are exceptions to the rules—anomalies, naturally gifted and self-selected; and, they would have succeeded in any situation. Our education system has little, if anything, to do with their success. So what does that tell us about the quality of teaching at our universities?

Talk to the students and you will hear complaints about the poor quality of teaching, lack of care, preparation, attendance, and often about the rude and abusive treatment of students. And the instructors complain that students come to the university ill-prepared to learn, do not work hard, do not pay attention in class, etc.

It appears that both sides have legitimate issues, and none of them are being solved with any degree of efficiency or expediency. Reports over the past decade kept telling us that our university graduates are woefully unprepared to handle the challenges of the 21st century, and that they will fall short of the demands of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Studies found that a majority of these students do not have the foundational literacies, competencies and the skillsets to be successful—skills like ICT and scientific literacies, creativity, critical thinking ability, curiosity or leadership ability. These skills are acquired, the experts tell us, in the early years of a person's life. For the university students, it may be quite late. But the problem is: the students are here, in our classrooms, now. They'll graduate soon and join the already over 34 percent of unemployed university graduates. So what can the universities do?

One of the solutions will be to establish centres for professional development and help the teachers and students learn the basic skills of teaching and learning. Remedial learning should be fast-tracked. All teachers must be thoroughly trained. The suggestion to train the best of our university graduates, who typically become university teachers, might offend some; but, if it is any help, we should look at the universities in developed nations—every single one of them have a similar training centre. Besides, understanding the  misconceptions in our society about teaching can help. A "good" student doesn't necessarily become a good teacher, teaching is fundamentally a different skill from learning, and a good teacher is not "born" but "made" through proper training.

We know that learning is a continuous process and that knowledge evolves continuously, increasingly at a faster speed (studies have shown that currently knowledge almost doubles every year). If teachers stop learning, they risk becoming obsolete, especially in functional areas such as science, technology, etc. However, given the amount of tasks university teachers have to perform, it's also a Herculean job to keep up with the profession, changes in technology and growth in the curriculum on top of other needs such as research, publication, etc. The teachers need help to keep up. This is where a specifically designed centre for professional development at the universities can help the teachers to learn the best teaching practices; learn about the new technology, tools etc, to effectively and efficiently deliver their teaching contents; learn to become more organised and do more effective planning; and get access to the current knowledge about the industry. All of these lead to the students having better learning outcomes.

Recognising the urgency of precisely this problem, the University Grants Commission (UGC) established the Higher Education Quality Assistance Programme (HEQEP) in 2009, initiated and funded principally by the World Bank, with the objective of improving "the quality and relevance of the teaching and research environment in higher education institutions."In 2016, prior to the end of HEQEP, the UGC started something else called the Institutional Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC). This programme was intended to make universities ready "to meet the requirements for accreditation." While the overall goal of IQAC was "ensuring institutional quality," it included objectives to overhaul governance, curriculum content design and review, student admission progress and achievements, physical facilities, teaching, learning and assessment, and student support services, staff and facilities. The teaching and learning part, the two most important aspects of a university, seems to have gotten lost in a package with far too many objectives. And with no real support from outside and burdened with the responsibility to provide the resources for these massive tasks, most universities, for the most part, abandoned the task and these Cells gradually became a "step-child" for the university and the bane of the teachers' existence.

In 2016, the IQAC official site reported the following—"the quality of education has not improved to the desired standards. Graduates coming out of the universities have been increasingly facing difficulties to get gainful employment in highly competitive job markets, within the country and abroad, where quality makes a difference." Every year, a large number of graduates with higher education degrees remain unemployed in Bangladesh. Things don't seem to have changed much from 2009 to 2016, and from the findings summarised above, it appears that even in 2020, the prospects look just as grim as it did in 2009.

Based on the data showing that investment in teaching and learning shows the highest rate of return and is one of the best remedies for the major problems of our universities, several recommendations can be made: Limit the IQAC objectives to only enhancing the quality of teaching and learning, or create separate professional development centres to focus only on teaching and learning; invest in these centres to make them effective; hire experienced professionals to design the centres; and allow time for the instructors to learn the skills and bring their knowledge to the classrooms. This effort may yet yield surprisingly helpful returns. Our universities must do their part if they want to remain relevant in higher education.

Dr Halimur R Khan is a university professor and can be reached at halimurkhan@post.harvard.edu​