Biotechnology policy vision
Md. Tariqur Rahman, Khulna University, Khulna
I was tremendously attracted to the article 'Science and Technology : A Policy Vision' by Prof. Ahmad Islam in the 'Point Counterpoint' page on 26 March. The article was based on policy-making of our future, i.e. our agriculture and economy which are now mostly dependent on biotechnology. It is high time for our nation to take technology in hand to compete with the developing world that is increasing production in every aspect of agriculture and industry. There is much debate on the safety aspect of biotechnology but it is true that proper management can remove the risks. But how will we approach accepting the technology which is new to us but not quite so to the developed countries? How will we develop skills for this field? The writer has mentioned that our curricula of school, college and universities should be modernised in accordance with needs of the applied field. Yes Sir, I agree with you on the curricula modernisation point. But what about the prevailing curricula of our universities? You know, there are three government universities that are involved in biotechnology education. I cannot say anything about the other two universities . The education here is really memorisation-based as you have stated. We hardly go for practical assessment which is included in our syllabus. Here the laboratories are not even moderately equipped. I can say that practical knowledge of us is almost zero. I have seen that for a study tour, practical and fieldwork the Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering discipline and the English literature discipline get the same amount of money. I don't understand how the authorities could grant the same amount of money for two different disciplines, when one is totally research and application based and the other is not. Moreover, the granted money is just insufficient to initiate a practical task. Thus the students acquire only theoretical knowledge, It is a matter of concern that there is nobody to evaluate the teaching quality and practical works in universities. The universities are running on their own. The universities should maintain a minimum standard of education in comparison with the international institutions. The article mentioned that the NIB building is ready to go on operation but the recruitment is not done yet. I was astonished after reading the line. Because I saw an advertisement on newspapers for the scientific staff recruitment at the NIB two years ago. But the recruitment is yet to be complete! There was a great suggestion in the article that the biotech students of universities can be utilised in the research projects that will be conducted in the NIB by the scientists of high track record. If the undergraduate biotech students get the chance to prepare their 4th year's thesis in the NIB projects, it will be beneficial for both the students and NIB projects, as well as for the government.
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