Does online technology provide sustainable HE or aggravate diploma disease? Evidence from Bangladesh—a comparison of conditions before and during COVID-19

Higher education (HE) serves to produce well trained and job-ready graduates. Despite this belief, whether HE produces certificates/qualifications or job-ready graduates—this debate remains unsettled. To date, the current COVID-19 pandemic which erupted in late 2019 continues to create much economic, social and political dislocation throughout the world. Consequently, one outcome for HE during this crisis is the much greater dependence on online/digital technology to deliver courses and programs. Although it is not considered to be a complete substitute, critics argue that education delivered through online technology has expended the ‘diploma disease’ crisis and subsequently may pose a threat to the viability of producing HE graduates. It has been suggested that this can result in significant long-term problems that may be impossible to recover from. This study was based on a ‘empirical survey’ where the sample incorporated 240 people in two groups (before and during COVID-19, for a total of 120 in each), and the objective was to examine academic and job-readiness of graduates in greater depth. Findings demonstrate that pre-pandemic students scored poorly academically compared to their post-pandemic classmates. Pre-pandemic graduates, on the other hand, had higher work readiness scores in terms of both aptitude and practical aspects. Furthermore, both groups outperformed their job-readiness scores in terms of learning performance. This raises the question: is it the job of higher education to promote sustainable production of graduates or deliver certificates and degrees? COVID-19 appears to have been utilised by the HE system as an excuse to exacerbate the “diploma disease crisis,” a scenario that must be resolved by developing a proper policy framework that allows HE to play the necessary role in an emergency. Meaningful measures should be taken so that online technology is employed properly in this situation

Impact of teachers’ professional development on school improvement—an analysis at Bangladesh standpoint

This study seeks to describe the teachers’ professional development activities in Bangladesh and explores the hypotheses about the relationship between teachers’ traditional professional development activities and school improvement. Data from a representative sample of City secondary schools from Bangladesh (n = 127) were gathered through questionnaires from 127 principals and 694 teachers. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used in this research. This study found significant impacts of some of teachers’ professional development activities on school improvement. Also found that the maximum school improvement can be achieved if schools put more emphasis on teachers’ collaboration, in-service training and classroom observation and less emphasis on individual action enquiry. The findings of this study provide important information for the policy makers, educational managers and especially for the headmasters and teachers concerned with the improvement of teachers’ quality in secondary schools of Bangladesh. This study adopts a concurrent approach of data collection and analysis

Can education as an ‘International Commodity’ be the backbone or cane of a nation in the era of fourth industrial revolution? - a comparative study

Governments of developing nations and ‘development partners’ consider education as an ‘international product’ that makes economic advancement possible. Hence, education in developing nations is always sluggish in responding to the changes of contemporary concepts. The fourth industrial revolution is a concept that explains the latest stage of economic development. When many developed countries’ education systems are still struggling to cope with this concept, developing countries want to copy them. Thus, the question can be asked: can a copied ‘international product’ necessarily support the ‘national development’ or ultimately assist ‘international development’? Using philosophical debates as a metaphor, some studies have attempted to answer. In the era of globalization, foreign income is the most important element of national development. This comparative study is the first to investigate the influence of education in earning foreign income. Multi-national data collected by designated agencies from both developed and developing nations are used. Findings show that quantitative and qualitative indicators of education in developing countries are figuratively catching up with the advanced economies. Certain industries need highly skilled individuals to grow the amount of a nation's foreign income. Education systems in developed counterparts are able to produce skilled graduates who contribute significantly for foreign income. For developing economies, foreign income mainly depends on low-skilled industry sectors. Education in developing countries is discussed here in terms of ‘Dependency Theory’

Dual Burden of Underweight and Overweight among Women in Bangladesh: Patterns, Prevalence, and Sociodemographic Correlates

The discourse of dual burden caused through underweight and overweight is well-documented globally but this issue and its connection with women\u2019s health in Bangladesh is yet to be explored widely. To enrich the current debate, this study, in the context of Bangladesh, examines the patterns, prevalence, and socioeconomic factors influencing the ever-married women of being underweight and overweight over normal weight. Data used in this study have been extracted from the most recent 2011 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. To achieve results connected with the research objectives, both bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses have been employed. In bivariate analysis, we used seven categories of BMI cutoff points for Asian countries as prescribed by World Health Organization (WHO). Multinomial logistic regression model was constructed to investigate the net effect of socioeconomic factors on underweight, pre-overweight, and overweight over normal weight. The results confirm the co-existence of underweight and overweight among women as we found the prevalence of underweight, normal weight, pre-overweight, overweight, and obesity to be 24.1%, 46.7%, 12.8%, 13.5%, and 2.9% respectively. Compared to the richest, the women from the poorest households were significantly (p<0.001) most likely to be underweight (OR=2.75, 95% CI 2.27-3.35) and least likely to be overweight (OR=0.15, 95% CI 0.12-0.19) over normal weight. The urban women, compared to their rural counterparts, were significantly (p<0.001) less likely to be underweight (OR=0.80, 95% CI 0.71-0.91) and more likely to be overweight (OR=1.33, 95% CI 1.18-1.51) than normal weight. The other socioeconomic grades that were most marked to be underweight and overweight are age, women\u2019s education, marital status, age at first childbirth, parity, number of children aged 645 years at the household, and food security. The findings confirm the dual burden of both under- and overweight. Systematic and regular monitoring and surveillance of the social trajectory of nutritional status of women and men in Bangladesh is crucial to develop apposite strategy that addresses the persistent and chronic problem of underweight and the emerging problem of overweight. The dual existence of both types of malnutrition among women in Bangladesh must be taken into consideration so that public health interventions may be adopted through appropriate policy

An analysis of animal health and veterinary facilities in coping the climate change in Bangladesh: what education system can offer for the benefit

The current situation of climate change related to animal health impacts, overall awareness, mapping of livestock and national policy in these regards are needed an especial scholarly attention in Bangladesh. The national policy primarily fails to deal with the impacts of climate change on animal health and its danger sine it is virtually invisible tha the others harming events such as natural disasters. Therefore, this study addresses some issues generated through an analysis of animal health and veterinary facilities in coping with the climate change and also answer on how a sound effective policy can develop by overcoming the issue. This study focuses the lack of inter-linkage of national policy and planning including the shortcomings of current veterinary education system to bring together the climate change issue and impacts on animal health. The experiences of this study may utilize for climate change related to animal health impacts and a way forward for potential veterinary policy in Bangladesh

Monetary union for the development process in the East African community: business cycle synchronization approach

This paper empirically examines the suitability of monetary union in East African community members namely, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda, on the basis of business cycle synchronization. This research considers annual GDP (gross domestic product) data from IMF (international monetary fund) for the period of 1980 to 2010. In order to extract the business cycles and trends, the study uses HP (Hodrick-Prescott) and the BP (band pass) filters. After identifying the cycles and trends of the business cycle, the study considers cross country correlation analysis and analysis of variance technique to examine whether EAC (East African community) countries are characterized by synchronized business cycles or not. The results show that four EAC countries (Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) among five countries are having similar pattern of business cycle and trend from the last ten years of the formation of the EAC. The research concludes that these countries, except Rwanda, do not differ significantly in transitory or cycle components but do differ in permanent components especially in growth trend

Return from education system in Bangladesh: An investigation on comparative flashback scenario

This article examines the contribution made by the school system in Bangladesh using primary data gained form a small scale of research. Secondary data also supplements. Both formal and informal education gained from society and other sources are considered. Findings show that primary education contributes mainly for social development. Secondary provision also contributes for social development; a small contribution for economical development is also noted. Higher Education (HE) consumes a large portion of public and private fund to ensure economic development. Unfortunately, because of existing job pattern in Bangladesh and requirements placed for recruitments, contribution from HE is not satisfactory. Overall conclusion suggests that there is a scope for development at each provision. This study also advocates an urgent need to conduct a broader study on this issue to make the education system more effective towards the development

How to cope with dengue in the developing countries like Pakistan?

A viral disease like dengue lacking a specific form of treatment is a high menace to human health. Situation becomes worse in developing countries like Pakistan because of poor health care services and facilities. Using data from earlier works and analyzing them, this review aims to explore the disease epidemiology. Dengue Virus (DENV) destroys the immune system and causes health problems like headache, inflammation, bleeding, hypertension and mental disorders. Death also can be caused through dengue because of its adverse effects on liver which also may result in hepatitis. Dengue spread can be controlled through many ways like modulating the environment and devastating its vector. Biological control appears as potentila pproach to control its vector, especially the use of "Wolbachia". Currently, no vaccines are available against this virus and antiviral drugs are also not significantly effective. Phytochemical studies revealed that apple, papaya, lemon are rich source of carotenoids, esters, flavonoids, phenolic acid, terpene and vitamins. Apple was found to have a number of antiviral compounds like phytoestrogens, procyanidins and rosmarinic acid. Although there are few reports of antiviral compound obtained from papaya but it has been reported to have evocative beneficial effects on immune system. The phytochemicals behave as strong anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory agents which can help the body against dengue-induced inflammation and oxidant stresses. Several other features are also found in these reviewed phytochemicals that can protects the human body from the adverse effects of dengue infection. In nutshell, the consuming of papaya and apple should be incorporated in daily routine life especially during the season when this disease appears in its epidemic form

National development and student politics in Bangladesh

Student politics is one of the ignored areas in the international scholarly debate. In the late 1960's to early 1970's, some authors made some contributions in the context of South America and Africa. In 1968, Altbach also made very little contribution on the Indian student politics and its impact on development. The institutions of HE (higher education) in southern Asia is experiencing a high volume of student politics and teacher politics. In the discourse of institutional management and national development, people often make links between teacher politics and students while they talk informally. As the academics of HE in Southern Asia whom mainly conduct research are also rigorously involved with the politics, therefore, they often ignore this area. Factually, student politics has a serious impact on the institutional management and education system itself. This also provides a high volume of impact on the national development, education and state business in overall. This paper explores the impact of students' involvement in 'party politics' on national development and state business of education in Bangladesh, while answering some specific research questions through the data gained from an empirical research work

Early childhood mortality and affecting factors in developing countries: an experience from Bangladesh

Within a method of a cross-sectional survey that adopts following as key variables i.e., demographic, socio-economic and health-care factors, thisstudy aimed to understand early childhood mortality rate and probable reasons in Bangladesh. In order to have probable rationality "logistic regression" of "multivariate statistical" technique is used to figure out the factors that are responsible for childhood mortality. The women who were married in the range of ageing 10-49 were asked to provide complete history about their "giving birth" for the reference period of 5 years. Statistical findings state that the rate of "national", "infant" and "under five year mortality" is, respectively 286, 461 and 525. Multi-examined statistical investigations sum up that "preceding birth interval", "birth order" and "number of living children" are significantly affect early childhood mortality. In addition, with the functionality of socio-economy, mother's education, source of drinking water and hygienic sanitation have also a significant impact on the rate of children mortality. Moreover, exposures to mass media, healtcare facilities have positive impact. Results also indicate that mothers who are more aware about helathcare are likely to be less mortality experience than their unaware counterparts