Harnessing youth potential for sustainable development

Bangladesh now has a sizeable youth population who fall in the millennial bracket. For this generation, the basic concept of Bangladesh is a nation which has moved forward in social development and income. For the young, between 18-25, much of the austerity and privations experienced by generations before them may sound very unreal.

However, the undeniable truth is despite countless impediments, social and political ferment, topped by demeaning observations from the elite of global politics, Bangladesh has crossed her fifty years, looking ahead with optimism. At such a juncture, the main challenge is to ensure unhindered development. According to a report published in this newspaper yesterday, graft watchdog, TIB, has made several recommendations to turn the massive youth force into a development catalyst.

This is indeed a timely call carrying special relevance because while this country has prospered, a decadent and depraved ideology has also crept into the psyche, almost insidiously.

A tainted social creed may bring wealth but it shatters the moral pillar, giving acceptability to a set of questionable concepts.

Development process needs to be carried on with integrity and complete transparency. TIB has suggested giving proper skills to the youth to make them capable of competing in the international market, not only for blue collar but white collar employment.

The main deficiency of our youth is communication skills for which they fail to compete for supervisory roles overseas. This can be redressed only when English plus other foreign languages are given due importance during school and college level education.

The saddest part of our education is that most of what is taught becomes useless later in life and by the time a young person discovers the significance of language skills, s/he is either too busy pursuing a livelihood or has lost the desire to learn.

Consequently, due to absence of language and technical skills, their options become limited. Bangladeshis overseas cannot compete for highly paid professional posts for two reasons: one, the communication skills are inadequate and two, those who are proficient are not promoted or supported by the government.

Skills, hard work and integrity are essential but in the real world these have to be publicized and marketed aggressively.

From another angle, in the last decade, a large number of students graduated from local universities where the mode of instruction was English yet these students who are tech savvy cannot vie for international jobs because international organisations bar Bangladeshi nationals from applying to senior level posts.

Even in Bangladesh, locals are permitted to apply for selective posts at international agencies while the mid upper level vacancies are reserved for foreigners. Perhaps once this iniquitous system could be accepted as the country was young and fledgling, but fifty years on, with many Bangladeshis possessing enough skills, this highly discriminatory glass ceiling needs to be brought down.

Unless the government promotes talented youths, the brain drain will be hard to contain. There is a belief among the educated young that political patronage is essential for social and career advancement which is not entirely untrue.

As a result, those uncomfortable with donning political colours decide to leave the country choosing migration to developed nations. In a strategic approach, education has to be made functional with emphasis on language and technical skills, the discriminatory employment policy of development agencies, especially the UN ones, has to be challenged and political allegiance should not be the sole criterion for employment.

Without addressing these key issues, youth potential cannot be harnessed as a force to add impetus to development.

Regarding transparent recruitment, it’s time to put aside lofty rhetoric since one hundred per cent open recruitment is often a chimera, even at institutions which claim to exercise transparency.

However, what should be pursued is relative openness in recruitment instead of putting up a charade, with talent plus capability given their due importance.