Hiren Pandit: Pointing out that the government has taken the initiative to create skilled manpower, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “If we do not take initiative from now, the country will lag.” The fourth industrial revolution is now coming to the fore in the world. Keeping this fourth industrial revolution in mind, we need to create skilled manpower. If we don’t take the initiative for that now, we will go backward. So, we don’t want to go backward. That’s why training is needed immediately. Because we want to keep pace with the world. As much as the world advances technologically, we will keep pace with it.: We want to make the people of the country skilled in technical and technology-based education and training. So that they can keep pace with the changing world. Skilled manpower can contribute to the development sector of our country. A large number of Bangladeshi workers are working in different countries of the world. We have to send skilled manpower to the foreign labor market. In the last 12 years, 500 polytechnical institutes have been established by government and private initiatives. The capacity of government polytechnical institutes has increased from 25 thousand to 1 lakh. Capacity capacity-building project of 49 technicians has been undertaken by constructing a 10-storey building, women’s dormitory, workshop and lab for 26 billion taka. Initiatives have been taken to establish technical schools and colleges in every upazila. Technical schools and colleges have already been established in 100 upazilas. It has given employment to 6 thousand 400 teachers and employees. Many visionary initiatives are being taken and implemented to generate generational employment. We have to take special initiatives to protect our environment, environment, arable land and water bodies. One hundred Special Economic Zones are being established to ensure that no arable land is lost to unplanned industrialization. A large number of jobs will be created in these economic zones.
Education is needed to create skilled human resources. Higher education institutions can play a major role in this regard. That is why it is said to reorganize higher education to survive in global competition. Realizing the need for skilled human resources, the Ministry of Education and the University Grants Commission have started reorganizing the education system to create manpower suitable for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Bangladesh is continuously connecting with the global economy. Our communication channels are four export, import, investment and temporary migration. Imports of Bangladesh are much more than exports. Therefore, increasing investment (foreign) in the country and exporting manpower are the main means of strengthening the economy. Foreign investment will increase only when the country has sufficient resources, such as mines or land, capital or manpower. Unskilled manpower does not encourage foreign investment. In this case, only investment will be made in labor dependent sector. Bangladesh is exporting only one product. But in countries where labor skills are high, foreign investment increases in those countries. The same is the case with manpower exports. Workers are needed abroad. However, the demand for skilled workers is constantly increasing. Skilled workers earn about 10 times more than unskilled workers and the skill of the worker depends on the quality of education. So, changing the quality of education is very important. It will not be possible to change the education system through conventional thinking.
The fourth industrial revolution is giving a new dimension to world civilization. The processes and possibilities of this revolution are already being widely discussed worldwide. The discussion is going on in our country too. Through this discussion, the prime minister and her adviser on information and communication technology are working tirelessly to create a kind of awareness among the people and make Bangladesh suitable for leading the fourth industrial revolution.
As we know, the fourth industrial revolution is the fusion of physical, digital, and biological spheres. Here physical is human, biological is nature, and digital is technology. It becomes difficult to separate these three. What is the result of this? What kind of changes are happening in society? This results in intellectualization, human-machine interfaces, and the merging of reality and virtuality. To prepare us for the fourth industrial revolution, emotional intelligence, physical intelligence, social intelligence, and contest intelligence must be introduced into the mind.
Then we can prepare everyone for the fourth industrial revolution in the future. But what will be created in the future is unknown. There are a few things we can do to prepare our generation for this unknown future. Information is a powerful element of civilizational change. Since the dawn of civilization, man has been eager to spread his experiential knowledge.
The technological upheaval of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is everywhere. This revolution is causing huge changes in the world of thought, product production and service delivery. People’s lifestyles and the nature of the world are changing drastically. Perpetuates the wall of difference between the biological, terrestrial, and digital worlds.
Artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of things, virtual reality, 3D printing, genetic engineering, quantum computing and other technologies are the revolution. The scale of this revolution, technology-based modernity and its associated complex system have also faced a major test of the ability of the governments of the world.
Especially when the government is committed to inclusive development by ‘Leave No One Behind’ in light of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Sustainable development, reducing inequality, safe work and responsible consumption and production are key challenges to implementing and achieving the SDGs.
In addition to the education system, various technical and online technical skills are creating various employment opportunities. Platforms like ‘Kishore Batayan’ and ‘Shikshak Batayan’ have been developed in collaboration with A2I to make education easier.
Various online content plays a special role in building a prosperous nation along with gaining updated knowledge. ‘Muktapath’ is the largest e-learning platform in the Bengali language. Where general, technical, vocational and lifelong learning opportunities are available.
Digital content has been developed for primary, secondary, madrasa and technical level students in collaboration with the Department of Information and Communication Technology, which is being broadcast nationwide. The government is working to improve and modernize the quality of life of citizens through Digital Bangladesh and to easily access citizen services, education, health, management, work, industry, trade and production, economy, social and cultural lifestyle in a digital manner.
As technology has become accessible to every citizen of the country, technology-based services are being made available to the marginalized groups. Technology has become a trusted medium in all citizen services and lifestyles.
In response to the fourth industrial revolution, the information technology sector of Bangladesh has emphasized various infrastructural developments including the development of skilled human resources. Bangladesh is striving to be among the top 50 countries in the United Nations e-Governance Development Index in the next five years. 5 initiatives of Digital Bangladesh have been internationally acclaimed. They are Digital Centre, Service Innovation Fund, Empathy Training, TCV (Time, Cost and Visit) and SDG Tracker. With the help of information technology, young people are building small and big IT firms, e-commerce sites, app-based services and other organizations. Besides, some major achievements including Bangladesh’s first satellite in space have taken Bangladesh to a unique height in the eyes of the world.
Creating a kind of awareness among the people and making Bangladesh suitable for leading the fourth industrial revolution, work is going on to create skilled manpower. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio, and television gave impetus to the strong desire of people to spread information. In the mid-twentieth century, computers and later wireless technologies revolutionized information storage and distribution. In today’s dotcom era, the entire world has become a ‘Global Village’. ICT or Information and Communication Technology has therefore become a world-changing tool. The technological upheaval of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is everywhere. This revolution is causing huge changes in the world of thought, product production and service delivery. People’s lifestyles and the nature of the world are changing drastically.
Hiren Pandit is a columnist and researcher