DIGITAL DIVIDE AND THE PROBABILITY OF DIGITAL BANGLADESH WITH REFERENCE TO EDUCATION

An Assignment on

Presented by

Md. Toufiqur RahmanBBA (Hon’s) 8th Semester

Roll No. 0405002Department of Management

Islamic Unversity

Abstract

Recently the people of Bangladesh have made them overwhelmed with the term “Digital Bangladesh” which was the vision 2021 in the election manifesto of the present ruling party, Bangladesh Awami League. Most of the education sectors are hoping that they can be successful in doing that for the country. But if we think deeply and analyze the actual facts then we can realize that we are far behind our vision and this is not going to be achieved. This writing has revealed some logical points on this issue discussed in.

PRESENTATION OVERVIEW

Objectives of the StudyMethodology of the StudyDigital DivideDigital Divide in BangladeshDigital Bangladesh Education in Digital BangladeshHow Far are we?ConclusionRecommendation

Objectives of the Study

The study was conducted for the followings Explain the meaning of digital divideExplore the digital divide in BangladeshHighlight the meaning of the term “Digital Bangladesh”Show the Roadmap to achieve Digital BangladeshDepict the picture of present ICT condition of BangladeshForecast the Probability of Digital Bangladesh in 2021

Methodology of the Study

The study has been conducted with the use of secondary data only. Since there was a shortage of time and the people of this country don’t have a clear idea about the main idea of this study, it was quite difficult to collect primary data and conduct a full research work.

Digital Divide

• The gap between those who have access and the ability to use ICT and those who do not

Digital Divide in Bangladesh

The digital divide in Bangladesh is bigger than other countries in the world. Some statistical data reveal that the country is divided in two groups approximately 99.998% and 0.002% from which the latter one is digitally educated.

Digital divide : Bangladesh and the World

Digital Bangladesh

A digital Bangladesh must guarantee effective use of modern ICT in all sphere of the society with a view to establishing good governance. In other words, making Bangladesh a digital one we have to establish technology driven

E-governance E-commerceE-learningE-production E-agricultureE-healthcare

Education in Digital Bangladesh

The education system in Bangladesh can be visualized when the total education system will be completely dependent to the digital systems. In this regard Bangladesh should follow some developed country’s digital education revolution plans. In Australia there is Digital Education Revolution Implementation Roadmap.4 If we consider that then our digital Bangladesh should have an education system that must have the followings

Education in Digital Bangladesh con’d

ICT LeadershipThe schools, colleges and universities

have to ensure that they possess ICT structure, e-learning resources and e-teaching capabilities.

ICT infrastructureThe state must ensure that all the

students and teachers have access to digital learning and

teaching resources and tools for processing information, building knowledge, communication and

collaboration.

Education in Digital Bangladesh con’d

Learning ResourcesThis must stimulate challenges

and assist students in achieving desired learning outcome. These include online collaboration, and interactive activities as well as online instructional and references materials.

Teachers’ Capability

Teachers must have the skills and tools to design and

deliver programs that meets the needs of the digitally

educated students and benefit resources of digital education.

Education in Digital Bangladesh con’d

Primary Education Level

All the students in primary level should have the fundamental knowledge of ICT by the completion of their primary education

Secondary Level Education

Students should practice the technical aspects

of the theoretical knowledge they gain.

Education in Digital Bangladesh con’d

Tertiary Level Education

In the colleges and universities the students must try to find out the ways to use ICT in their respective field of study.

Lecturing System

Teachers must be using computers and the

Internet to teach their students in the most convenient way and

with the latest information.

Education in Digital Bangladesh con’d

Exams and ResultsStudents will appear in exams online

and the results will be published within seconds after the end of the exams.

How far are we?

At present there is no structure for digital education in Bangladesh at any level of the of education. Students do not have better ideas about the better use of information and communication technologies and gaining knowledge digitally. So, the distance between us and the digital Bangladesh can be perceived from the following pieces of information.

Only 6000 students gain formal ICT knowledge among 2,00,000 students in the public and private universities.

The ration of ICT scholars to the total population is 0.005 with a growth rate of 0.0000375

Only 2 persons per 1000 people get the Internet facility with a negligible data transfer speed of 5 kbps

On average the number of teacher having digital knowledge is less than 1 in 27000 schools in our country

There is no interoperability framework enabling sharing of systems and information between different educational institutions.

There is no dependable network infrastructure outside the capital although we got the Internet connection in 1993.

We are having a power deficit of 2000 MW against a demand of 5000 MW daily

The user of the Internet constitutes only 0.3 % of the total population.

English literacy rate in our country is less than 1% of the total population whereas digital Bangladesh cannot be imagined without it being 100%.

Network readiness index ranking placed out country at the 130th place among 134 countries

Conclusion

From the above mentioned information and discussion our concept of the digital Bangladesh can be said to be only a mere dream or more precisely an impossible dream. If a country’s ICT sector is so poor as ours then how we can achieve an ICT supremacy within next 12 year, is a matter of doubt. Therefore, the possibility of digital Bangladesh is 0% within the specified time period and if it continues like the present situation, Digital Bangladesh will never be in existence within 200 years in the future.

Recommendation

We should not be overjoyed with this buzzword “Digital Bangladesh” rather we should focus on how to educate the next generation with the base of digital knowledge and digital aspects of ICT. If we are successful in doing that then our digital Bangladesh will appear automatically.

End of the Presentation