• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Bangladesh Fails to Create IT Job Market for Graduates

Posted on: Wednesday, 30 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

Bangladesh fails to create IT job market for graduates

DHAKA, June 29 (Xinhua) -- Bangladeshi students' passion to choose the major of computer science is decreasing due to the limited job opportunities, reported the Bangladesh Observer on Tuesday.

Only two years back, the most competitive and sought-after subject in all public and private universities was computer science and engineering. Students rushed to enroll into this subject in the hope of a high-flying future career, as they believed a degree in this field would lead them to the gateway of material safety.

The current situation, however, is that the overwhelming preference of most students have gone through a rapid change and shifted to Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration.

An investigation on private universities showed all the 51 private universities of the country have computer science departments. On an average over 2,500 students complete their graduation from this discipline annually.

Most of these graduates, however, failed to secure suitable jobs within the country. Many of them went abroad in search of livelihoods, and the rest of them mostly chose teaching careers in private universities, while only a few have found employment in some national and multi-national companies.

Another discouraging trend is that many of the country's insurance companies, banks and other companies very often appoint students who did not complete their graduations for their IT divisions and computer sections.

Employers complained a good number of IT graduates are theoretically very sound, but practically weak.

Alok Kumer in charge of IT section of a local life insurance company pointed out over 90 percent of the country's universities have failed to provide proper education, creating hundreds of practically unskilled graduates every year. He further said most private universities do not have sufficient collection of reference books, adequate and qualified teachers and rich laboratories.

Some students, however, complained the country's industries and institutions are mostly labor intensive and manually operated, with only a few are computerized, making their prospect of job opportunities bleak.

Chairman of Computer Science Department of Dhaka University Hafiz Muhammad Hasan Babu said the relationship between the educational institutions and the job-oriented projects of the country were very weak, such as the students do not get sufficient internship offers during the study period.

Vice Chancellor of Ahsanullah Science and technology University MH Khan further pointed out since some computer science students of Bangladesh have already shown great skills abroad, if the government offers them proper opportunities and creates job facilities for them, they can do a good job within the country as well.

More News in this Category