E- Book & E-Learning --A New Prospect in the Context of Bangladesh

            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