Apart from the lack of skills in technology, brain drain has become another problem of the country. After graduation, many talented students are moving to Australia, USA and Canada. The World Economic Forum has found that young people aged 15-29 do not want to stay in the country. They want to migrate abroad. 98 percent are not returning home after studying abroad. As a result, according to the Global Economy Report 2021, Bangladesh ranks 31st in the world in intellectual trafficking but 4th in Asia.
The CTO Forum Bangladesh conducted a survey in 2018 to look into the report’s findings, citing low quality of life and property, pollution, traffic congestion, corruption and lack of health care, inadequate access to quality education and research, low incomes and insecurity in the workplace are the causes of brain drain. However, CTO Forum Cloud Consultant Mohammad Asif opined that freelancing, startups and remote jobs are also playing a negative role in brain drasin of IT skilled manpower.
He made the remarks while presenting a keynote address at a virtual seminar on prevention of intellectual trafficking for ICT professionals on Saturday.
He said that freelancing is not good for long term, even if it is for short-term earnings or job training. One cannot acquire skills in any subject without working in a specific company in a structured environment. Moreover, almost all the freelancers in our country are working for foreign companies. But in the country, mid and enterprise level companies are not getting these resources in automation and digitization. In addition, in recent times, some Indian companies have opened agencies in Bangladesh and are working remotely by hiring Bangladeshi IT professionals.
He suggested that in order to get rid of this situation, the Asian Silicon Valley in Bangalore or in Taiwan and China should take steps like tax exemption, housing facility and so on.
Participating in the panel discussion, Syed Akhter Hossain, Dean of the Faculty of Science and Engineering, Canadian University of Bangladesh, said that there is a gap in the education system as teachers of the country are not aware of many initiatives of Digital Bangladesh. He said that empowerment of teachers and joint partnership in the industry of the country would fill this gap.
Munir Hasan, general secretary of Bangladesh Open Source Network, said an ecosystem needs to be built to keep the new generation of people leaving the country now. That is why it is important to focus on creativity rather than the traditional profession. Because the size of the creative economy in the world has now crossed 3.8 billion dollars. There are now 50 million young people in the world who call them creators. We have to identify these places. Say for Bitcoin; That has become a taboo and cannot be pronounced in Bangladesh. If crypto-currency is not even in the discussion, why will they stay? For this, everyone has to work together.
Abdullah Al Mamun, founder and CEO of PM Aspire, said: Where I used to get 10 applications, now it has come down to 1. Because now most of the work has increased remotely. Increasing Global Opportunity. Now it is very difficult to get talent. In the future we have to hire engineers from outside. We are hiring people from Europe for digital marketing, sales. In this case, human resource management needs to be improved. Talent cannot be retained with labor law.
Participating in the discussion, Ayesha Saeed, Head of Talent Management, Banglalink Digital Communications, said that not only overtime, but also work environment and work-friendly policies or management will play an important role in dealing with emerging situations.
UGC Director Mohammad Maksudur Rahman Bhuiyan, who was the chief guest at the seminar, said that the syllabus of the university has already been changed keeping in view the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Now every university’s syllabus is going to Outcome Based Education or OBE mode. The hands on applications will change a bit after this mood takes effect. Hands on and Sessional applications will be increased by reducing credit hours. Hopefully, through this we will be able to overcome many shortcomings and surpass the West.
The government spends BDT 5 lakh a year on an honors and masters student of a public university. Whereas, in BUET, spends BDT 10 lakh for each student and BDT 15 lakh on a medical student. It is the money of the working people of the country. But the developed world is enjoying these benefits through intellectual trafficking. In 2020, 2 lakh students have migrated abroad for higher education. The number of Bangladeshi students in the United States alone is 15,000. Eighty percent of them do not return to the country. It is a concern for development. The big reason for not being able to keep them in the country is that we do not have a proper methodology for merit assessment. But we are spending 5 billion dollars on hiring expert consultants in the country. Rather, a talent pool can be used to build students at the university level. He expressed hope that the University Grants Commission would come forward in this regard.