Study Abroad: Watch Your Steps

Bangladeshi students are found to have a dream to study/live abroad. But we should be careful about whom we trust with our career and life. Many become victims of lies and misinformation. Its also highly tough to live in a completely different environment from home. What is home is home, we can’t deny this. Here’s a useful paper-cut I read today on New Age, a local daily.

Source: http://www.newagebd.com/2008/aug/27/oped.html

Going abroad for education: let sensible thinking be the guiding force by Towheed Feroze

GOING abroad for education at the post-higher secondary level and at the post-graduate level has been a preference among the local young for quite some time now. If we care to look at the statistics involving the countries preferred for higher education, we will see that, since the late 1980s, the whole trend of leaving Bangladesh for better education has seen several phases of changes. Back in the 1990s the most desired place was the United States but soon after 9/11, the flow towards the US halted and with the plummeting popularity of TOEFL, IELTS became the number one test required for going outside the country. With that, the destinations for education shifted from US cities to countries in the commonwealth this was also the time when students also started to go to other countries with the ultimate objective of entering nations within the European Union.
While there is a huge demand for foreign degrees for our students to get better jobs in the market, there is also no denying that a large number of students go abroad to study as well as explore employment opportunities. But how many students manage to finish education while earning a steady income and then a secured employment? In fact, the first question should be: how many students become disillusioned after landing in a foreign country with hearts filled with hopes? The unvarnished truth is that a lot of the students who go abroad find themselves faced with situations for which they were not prepared. In that context, we talk about the repeated advertisements that appear in the papers selling Cyprus as a top destination for education and, eventual employment. A noted Bangla paper did an elaborate story on this and we are informed that though Cyprus is projected by many student counselling centres as the best place for education and work, in reality our students often do not manage to get close to the ‘top notch’ schools there.
Moosa, a student having just completed his undergraduate degree went to Cyprus in 2002 as a post-graduate student because at that time, counselling centres lured prospective students with the line that soon Cyprus would be in the EU and then travelling and getting work anywhere in Europe would be as easy as unwrapping a candy. Add to this the never eroding belief among the young: something will happen if you go abroad!
Moosa realised the hard way that work was not easy to get and whatever he managed was only available during summer. Six years on, he is still struggling in Cyprus and with a near fatal motor cycle accident two years ago, life is proving to be extremely.
In reality there are hundreds of students like Moosa and their problems vary. Some, trusting the local education counsellors, went to a college and discovered that the institution was only a three room establishment with no proper accreditation.
But, the most troubling factor about going to Cyprus is the lack of employment opportunities. ‘Show me one person who managed to come back from Cyprus with some savings,’ remarked Shamsuzzaman, a student, who lived, studied and worked in that country but came back almost empty handed. ‘Some may have come back with savings but these are the people who colluded with dubious colleges to get students from Bangladesh at a commission,’ he added.
Another tragedy is that when students discover that they will not be able to get any employment to ensure a regular pocket money, they become disoriented and eventually the only path remaining is to come back home, often, without a degree.
But, still today there are countless ads coming out in the papers and, in almost every one of them, pledges of employment are made.
The victims are naturally the young students who, after passing HSC, want desperately to get on a solid track leading to a secured future. But, between the students and these so-called admission centres there is a huge gap – a gap of the right information. In fact, there is a big demand for information relating to overseas education in the market.
And it’s the government’s responsibility to provide information so that a student, before embarking on a trip, will know what to expect. Understandably, for students, having an income to meet the pocket expenses is important, and so, there needs to be a guide to provide the correct information about job markets in different countries with special emphasis on job regulations applicable for overseas students.
In this regard, the government can work to publish an essential guide for all overseas students that will cover all relevant issues, including jobs.
There are countless overseas education counselling centres and of them a few are in the business not solely to make profit but also to help students. These organisations can be roped in for making the guide and, until that is made, government sponsored student counselling sessions can be held at a public place at least once a month.
However, the whole fantasy regarding foreign lands should also be addressed. Many students believe that once their education in another country is over they may be able to stay back. But today, in a world where suspicion of militancy has become an obsession of sorts, staying back is often impossible. In that case, would coming back home with a degree from unknown universities and colleges help?
An effective way to reach a lot of young people would be to arrange TV talk shows featuring students who have studied abroad and faced different problems. All said and done, perhaps there needs to be awareness among the general people that everything that is ‘foreign’ is not always the best. The standard of education in Bangladesh now is quite competitive and one should only go abroad for high studies if they are able to find admission in an overseas institution that is markedly better. It stands to reason that those who study at well-known institutes get offers in other countries whereas those who get certificates from unknown places see their chances limited even back here at home.