Bangladesh, being a developing
country in South-Asian region, is a new stake-holder of globalization &
digitalization. Every sphere of management & administration of the different
organs demands automation for the speedy
functioning of state governance. Education is the basic need & fundamental
right of every citizen. An educated nation can develop a country. Book is the
pre-requisite for education. Books contain the context of vision & mission,
ideas & feelings, morals &
maxims, science & technology, trade & commerce, & so on. But all books
are not available for all people. Books
of prominent writers, philosophers, scientists, researchers, doctors, teachers,
thinkers, intellectuals of home & abroad are not available for all classes
of people because their hard copies are not easily accessible. Here lies the
importance of e-book & e-learning. It is in line with the digitalization of
Bangladesh.
But how far we are towards e-book & e-learning in the context of Bangladesh.
There are many book
publication companies in Bangladesh.
They publish fiction & non-fiction books every year though they are still
off line. NCTB publishes on line text
books for the students of the academy. Different reputed institutes publish on
line journals & periodicals. But
these are not sufficient for the mass level. Still, the rural areas of our
country are not under the coverage of
e-learning facilities though community-based information centres are in operation at union paishad levels
across the country. We are miles &
miles away from digitalization in the
fullest sense. But we are not
pessimistic in our approach. We are optimists in our dream
& ambition. We are heading
towards our goal with a definite mind set.
Bangladesh is
our dear motherland. It is our hard-earned dear homeland. We must keep pace
with the developed & advanced countries of the world to build Sonar Bangla. But we have lots of duties & responsibilities undone. The
majority of our people live in villages. They need fruitful education &
effective training. We, the educated
people, must change their vision. They must be brought under the benefits of
modern education. They must be brought under the education of science &
technology. But what is the way? I think ICT with ample on line resources can
do to a great extent in this context. Books of science & technology, trade
& commerce, arts & social science, agriculture & animal husbandry
must be available for the common people as early as possible. The common people
have to be accustomed to the habit of reading on line with ICT facilities.
E-learning can provide
them the access to the high thoughts of the great thinkers of home &
abroad. But is it still possible for the common people to access the on line
resources available in different web sites . The answer is perhaps ‘NO’. The reason is very simple. We are not sincere
in the true sense of the term. The
socio-economic structure of our country is not up to the mark. The purchasing power parity of our people is
not satisfactory. Per capita income of our people are very low. The low income
group of our country can never access
the benefits of ICT. In most of our
educational institutions there is no digital lab or library. With some
exceptions, the public universities of our countries do not have sufficient
infrastructure facilities. The highly prestigious libraries of the world are
enriched with on line resources. But they are not free of cost. Though some books are accessible on line, in
fact, internet cost in our country is not cost-effective. The internet packages offered by the mobile
phone operating companies in our country are not within the reach of the low income
groups.
Most resources in the
libraries of the public & private institutes of the country have no on line
version. The famous publications of the
world like Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, Gutenberg, McGraw Hill & so on publish on line version of their resources.
Amazon.com is the largest e-learning publishing company. Recently Oxford University
Press has ended the print edition of Oxford dictionary. Most
news papers of Europe & America do not publish hard copies & always
publish their resources on line. So,
there is no denying the fact that e-learning is the most coveted factor in this
modern world. In Bangladesh,
it holds a bright prospect for the next generation readers. But without
logistic support , the prospect of e-learning will see no light of hope. Each & every student must have access to
ICT with low paid internet cost. He or she must be provided with PCs at cost
effective rate even at easy instalments. The price of computer accessories
should be more affordable. Foreign
computer companies should be invited to our country to set up their plant. For
this, necessary positive & effective steps must be ensured.
We can easily integrate
e-learning into our daily routines using
intranets, e-mail, chat, and other familiar tools. To be more ICT based, we need to focus on
e-learning. Our universities can run distance courses with necessary logistic
support. E-learning can save time, money & energy. It can reduce the load
of infrastructure problems. E-learning, e-education, e-commerce & over all
ICT based management & administration can go a long way in enjoying the
benefits of modern Information &
communication technology
