Some Unanswered Questions

The recent protests by private university students against the government imposed VAT on their education has once again underscored the nature of our socio-political reality. Despite public ordeal on the roads caused by the demonstrations, many have criticized the decision to impose VAT on these ‘non-profit organizations’. Although the government rightly decided to withdraw the VAT eventually, the chaos has left behind some unanswered questions, which indicate that it is part of a bigger problem in our country. I am going to discuss about the ‘non-profit’ label of private universities later on. At the outset, let me discuss briefly about the VAT issue.

Many have rightly argued that education cannot be considered as a ‘commodity’, and you cannot impose VAT on non-profit organizations. Others came up with the counter argument that in reality private universities are not being operated like ‘non-profits’, and hence they should be paying more VAT and taxes. My question is whose responsibility is it?

Frankly speaking, ‘accountability’ or ‘the lack of it’ is a fundamental deficiency in our society. Most problems in our political, social or economic contexts are the by-products of this utter absence of accountability. And who are the victims of it? The general people, people like those who were stuck in traffic for hours and those demonstrating students who were supposed to be in their air-conditioned classrooms, libraries and labs, not on the streets on a sweltering summer afternoon. However, at least they had the courage to raise voice against an injustice. In most cases, we cannot even properly address the injustice that we are subject to. We are the helpless people in a ‘people’s republic’ that does not care about its people. We are perpetually trapped under sadistic political ambitions of the elites.

Now let us discuss if we can consider education as a ‘commodity’. Unfortunately, everything has turned into a commodity nowadays. There is triumph of commercialization everywhere. We encounter more commercials than quality programs on TV; newspapers do not want to print news that will not sell; we enroll for degrees that have more demands in the job-market. We judge the value of everything by the price that it gets in the market. Our success, failure, happiness, sorrow, depression, love, hatred, relationship, friendship - everything has a price tag on it. Everything around us is being controlled by the market mechanisms, by the brute invisible hands of supply and demand.  And quite naturally, education is no exception. Perhaps, the government’s decision to impose VAT on education further accentuates how market-oriented and commercialized we have become! No wonder, the government wanted its fair share of ‘the profit’ in this unscrupulous game of profit-maximization. Therefore, corruption, bribery, financial malpractices, business under the umbrella of non-profit, VAT on education, everything goes hand-in-hand within this insensitive, materialistic system, which does not have any consideration for ethics or basic human values.

Now let me talk about the ‘non-profit’ label of private universities. In Bangladesh, I really don’t know who does justice to official labels. Although we have been entitled to the official label of a ‘democratic country’, are we really a true ‘democracy’? Have we been able to create a political culture that reflects true democratic values? We do not have democratic practices in a democracy, and neither do we have good governance. The impact of this lack of good governance and non-democratic practices trickles down to all levels. As a result, our businesses are infamous for their apparent lack of ethics; our public administration is corrupt; our journalism is often characterized by biases; and our law-enforcement agencies frequently violate basic legal norms. What I am implying is that if our ‘non-profit’ private universities are actually being operated like ‘profitable’ non-profit organizations, then this is also a part of a bigger problem. And Like any other complicated problem in our country, the victims of the problem are the general public, not those who create the problem.

On a positive note, it is absolutely undeniable that over the last few decades private universities are playing a significant role in fulfilling the escalating demand for higher education in our country, which the public sector has failed to address adequately. If private universities had not been established, a huge number of students might have gone abroad for pursuing higher studies, or many of them might have become jihadists! Therefore, these universities have contributed significantly into our socio-economic growth, by fulfilling demand for higher education internally, and by creating skilled manpower for our rapidly evolving industries.

I have taught in two private universities, and I felt that students in these universities have enormous potentials. Unfortunately, our public sector education has long been plagued by some pervasive problems. Private sector gave an alternative platform to many students, who choose private universities because they expect to get a better academic environment. However, whenever something promising emerges in Bangladesh, there are very few people to motivate it. The promising revolution brought by the private universities have mostly been underestimated and underrepresented. In many cases, the whole sector has been grossly misrepresented in the media.

Unfortunately, when our so-called intellectuals talk about these universities, they partially emphasize all the negatives, as if nothing good is being done by them.  It is also not acceptable that some people indiscriminately disparage the whole sector, instead of pointing out to the inept government monitoring mechanisms, and some crooked institutions that are actually responsible for defaming the image of this promising sector. Like any other sector of our country, private universities also have their strengths and weaknesses. It is absolutely undeniable that many of these universities have resource shortages and lack of infrastructures. It takes time for a sector like this to be fully established. However, in order to reach that threshold, these institutions need adequate appreciation and patronization by the government and other relevant stakeholders. Therefore, I ardently hope our government will pay more attention to patronize these institutions in future, and ensure quality assurance mechanisms in this sector, which is absolutely imperative for its growth and sustainability.

The writer is a faculty member of School of Business and Economics, North South University