- Email: [email protected]
Linking higher education across continents
Vd
lni .I Educo~ronoi Drv~lrymrr,r/, Pnnlcd ,n Grcar &,~a,,,
4. No
I. pp
17-Z I. 19X4
073R-OSY304
LINKING
HIGHER
EDUCATION ACROSS A RESPONSE* MAZHARUL
Institute
of Education
and Research,
l.ld
CONTINENTS
of Dhaka,
Dhaka
5, Bangladesh
establishing the Institute. Under a programme of cooperation between the USAID and the then government, the former provided financial assistance for the project and the University of Dhaka received professional and initial training support from the Colorado State College (later University of Northern Colorado) for its development. It may be mentioned that the University of Northern Colorado was one of the leading graduate institutions of higher learning in the areas of teacher education and educational research in the United States at that time. The professional staff deputed by the University of Northern Colorado for the purpose of developing the Institute of Education and Research worked under the contract and within the purview of authorities of the University of Dhaka. The group of these deputed teachers was treated as a group of teachers of the University of Dhaka and was under the administrative control of the Dhaka University authorities. The ULIE paper is incorrect to state that after 1968 the Institute became a part of the University of Dhaka. A better statement would be that after 1968 the University of Northern Colorado, and for that matter the USAID, phased out their respective roles in the programme of collaboration, replacing them with roles to be played by the local experts and the University of Dhaka authorities respectively. We should like to add that even during that period of development the expatriate staff of the University of Northern Colorado worked mostly as consultants to the local staff. It may be mentioned that the USAID had nothing to do with the internal affairs or professional activities of the IER during the period. The IER currently has about 38 teachers in addition to the supporting staff and about 250
AND HISTORY OF IER
The Institute of Education and Research, Unversity of Dhaka, was founded in 1959 as one of the two national institutions of its kind, as a result of the decision of the then government of the country. The other Institute was established at Lahore as part of the Punjab University. The Syndicate of the University of Dhaka founded the Institute of Education and Research in 1959 as an integral part of the University under a charter called the Statutes ‘Rerponre to Linda Dove (1983) BC‘TIK( conrinenrs. Ittrernarional De1~eloptuenr 3. 277-290.
+ 0.00
Pres
HAQUE
University
The ULIE paper is an analytical description of the progress of the first phase of the collaboration programme between the IER and the ULIE. The IER was asked to consider producing a response paper reviewing the link so that the insights and perceptions of one partner were shared fully by the other. The Academic Committee of the IER decided that we should prepare a response paper. A sub-committee was set up to review the paper and get it circulated among the teachers of the IER for their reactions. The Director has taken the responsibility of producing this paper which incorporates some of the ideas of the convener of the subcommittee, taking into consideration the views expressed by the IER staff. The ULIE paper makes some valid comments about the problems and constraints under which the IER functions. The IER has not been able to realize its objectives and aspirations during the last two decades of its existence and operation. But some comments and observations are not correct. BACKGROUND
$,.oll
Pereamon
Linking higher education Journal of Educarronal
17
18
M.HAQUE
students. Apart from doing their own basic research work and supervising research work of the M.Ed. and Ph.D. students the teachers participate in important national and international educational activities including action research and evaluative studies often sponsored by the government and international agencies. The teachers of the IER have made substantial contributions to educational innovations and experimental studies of national significance in recent years. The IER plays a leading role in all educational activities in this country today. The statement in the ULIE paper that in its early days the IER had a much larger staff and student population is incorrect. In fact, the staff and the student population were never larger than the current ones. The 1971 war was the War of Liberation which the people and armed forces of Bangladesh had to fight with Pakistani occupation forces to liberate the country. During that war some members of the IER staff were killed and a few Pakistanis who were on the IER staff had left for Pakistan. This event caused depletion in the staff strength for only a short period of time early in 1972. But the vacant positions were soon filled up by recruitment of promising and able young colleagues in place of the dismissed Pakistanis and those who had died during the War of Liberation. Most of these young colleagues had benefited by being trained in the University of London Institute of Education under the current collaboration programme. Revolutionary political situations, which have been referred to incidentally in the ULIE paper, as ‘civil disorders and military coups’ did not affect the programmes of the IER. However, it was true that during the period of the War of Liberation our library and laboratory resources were damaged to some extent and we naturally expected, without much success, to get some support for rebuilding them through the current collaboration programme with the ULIE. The IER has always had a very clearly defined role to play and a well-defined status within Dhaka University. These have been unambiguously defined in the Dhaka University Order 1973 and implemented accordingly in letter and spirit. The IER has not been a North American implant on the University of Dhaka. It has developed a unique programme which is
neither British-oriented nor USA-oriented. It has set an ideal before the University which is currently in the process of transforming the programmes of all the departments to follow this ideal. It is the first of a number of such Institutes in the University which have been established in recent years to follow its ideal of making higher education more responsive to the needs of the people. Without exception, all the teachers of the IER have at least a Master’s degree from the University and they have entered the Institute through a proper competitive channel. None has come from politics; some have prior school teaching experience or administrative (educational) experience of great eminence, both of which were explicitly set up as criteria for recruitment on the natural proposition that one could not possibly make others learn to ride a horse unless one had practical experience of riding. During the past two decades these persons have substantially demonstrated the feasibility of this proposition. The ULIE paper has misinterpreted the current trends for educational careers in Bangladesh. Our studies on educational sociology in Bangladesh convince us that careers in education including school teaching have been steadily rising in prestige and status and this is why academic high-fliers are going into teacher education in greater numbers. The IER teaching staff made some of their best contributions in the field of education and the IER emerged as a real national centre for educational research during the decade 1968-1978 when the scheme of cooperation with the ULIE began, with the new assurance of further development of its staff. During this decade vacancies were filled as soon as possible. DECISION-MAKING
PROCESSES
IN IER
The view that the IER staff, particularly the junior members, do not participate in the decision-making process is not based on facts. Decision-making at the IER never began and ended at the top at least so far as the link programme was concerned. Until the middle of 1980 all decisions had been made by the IER academic committee which consisted of about one-half of the faculty members including
LINKING
HIGHER
EDUCATION
representations from all categories of teachers. The new academic committee in which all the IER teaching staff are members came into being in the middle of 1980 as a statutory body of the Institute. Junior members’ points of view have equal weight in the decision-making process as the senior members’ not only in letter but also in practice. Even in the highest decision-making body of the IER, i.e. the Board of Governors, an assistant professor and even a lecturer were elected to represent the IER staff. Some months back the IER staff took a unanimous decision to rotate the chairmanship of departments among staff up to the level of assistant professor, somewhat similar to the position of Director which is rotated every three years among the professors and associate professors. Thus the IER functions through a democratic rather than a hierarchically organised process. The ULIE paper raises the issue of varying cultural styles when dealing with foreigners and particularly foreign donors. These reactions were sometimes misjudged by our colleagues of the EDC department. From the very beginning of the programme of collaboration our friends from the EDC department overemphasised the cultural differences between the two institutions. They also tended to have different ideas about the roles and tasks of the IER. DONOR-RECIPIENT RELATIONSHIPS We frankly admit that the IER, being at the receiving end of the link programme, had often felt obliged to accept many of the ideas imposed by the donors as well as the national authorities in order to keep the essential elements of the programme unaffected. Although the collective wisdom of the IER teachers was utilized for formulating the policies for the development plan under the programme of collaboration it had to be modified and adjusted to some extent due to a variety of limiting circumstances. For instance, the IER did not receive any support for developing an area like adult and non-formal education, which was included in the development plan, because ULIE, as the helping partner, could not do anything beyond its own areas of expertise. This domination also revealed itself in many
-
A RESPONSE
19
steps we tried to take in operating the scheme. One of the important aspects of the programme was the IER staff development and the other was the visits of ULIE consultants. We should like to begin here with the IER staff development . STAFF DEVELOPMENT According to the scheme document it was decided that the IER staff should be divided into two groups, namely senior and junior staff. The Academic Committee of the IER decided that all junior members (lecturers and assistant professors) who had not had any foreign experience should apply for a Master’s degree in the ULIE and avail themselves of the chance to go abroad if such a visit were helpful for the development of a specific programme in the department concerned. But since the number of such junior members was small and EDC department desired to receive a larger number of junior staff than that of senior staff, practically all junior members were ultimately selected for the programme and this was done in consultation with the other partner; two junior members of staff preferred to go to India for a Ph.D degree, one declined to go for personal reasons, and one dropped out of the programme after staying a few weeks in England. The question of politics or undue influence is not tenable. The number of places available was larger than the number of persons whom we could select for the purpose. The order in which these junior staff members were selected was also decided by the Academic Committee consisting at that tune of about one-half of the total staff strength. So even this much of selection was also based upon collective decision. This was approved by the Vice-Chancellor and the government of Bangladesh. In such a situation the question of external pressure cannot arise. With regard to the UK training programme, there are some differences of perception between the partner institutes. Due to language and cultural differences on the one hand and the fact that the contents and structure of the admission tests for MA degree programme of ULIE were based on those of the DipEd. of that institute, which were different from similar programmes in Bangladesh on the other, it was
20
M.
HAQUE
a little difficult for some junior IER staff to qualify for admission to an MA degree programme in the ULIE. Some IER staff wondered whether the EDC department should have made a case to relax the stringent admission requirements in order to accommodate the IER staff in the MA course in the ULIE. It may also be mentioned that personal choice, aptitudes and interests of each candidate coupled with the imposing forces of the donors represented by at least some ULIE visitors and the requirements of the IER development plan resulted in accommodative attitudes. This may be exemplified by the fact that instead of getting themselves admitted into the Dip.Ed. some junior IER staff preferred the Associateship of the ULIE. Since the number of senior members was large and since the sponsoring agency was ready to accommodate only a limited number of such visitors, the Academic Committee set up the following criteria for selection of persons for the senior staff development programme: at least one senior member from each department of the IER should visit ULIE if that person possessed the specialization in the area which was specified for developement in the plan. It was also decided that preferably the most senior members of the departments should visit the ULIE. The staff would orient and refresh themselves in new fields of knowledge developed during the last one-and-a-half decades in the advanced countries. But one who had spent a considerable time abroad in the recent past or one whose area of specialization did not agree with the development plan could not be considered for selection under the programme. Each application was carefully considered by a selection committee and its recommendations were appproved by the Academic Committee, the Dhaka University authorities and the government of Bangladesh. Ultimately, long before each visit, the British Council and the ULIE authorities had to approve these selections. The Director of the IER and the ULIE coordinator had opportunities to discuss frankly the merit of each selection. The question of undesirable influences cannot arise in this scheme of things. The IER authorities tried to resist any attempt of this kind and was perfectly successful. However, it may be men-
tioned that the Department of Science and Mathematics and the Department of Business Education had to be eliminated from the programme, because at that time we decided to abolish Business Education and the ULIE was unable to accommodate the other department in the scheme. VISITORS
TO IER
The initial visits of some of the ULIE consultants were not entirelv successful from IER’s standpoint. The first visitor, the coordinator, came here with the tasks of assessing the role of the IER within teacher education in the country as a whole, mapping out specific activities for the collaboration programme, rendering tutorial assistance to the junior members of the staff who were making preparation for the ULIE admission tests, giving orientation to the senior members, holding private and public discussions with individuals and groups inside and outside the IER, discussing problems with the Director, evaluating the degree programmes of the IER, visiting research project sites with groups of IER teachers, giving some seminars for staff and students, liaising with national and international development agencies, exploring possibilities for further collaboration with other agencies in Bangladesh, visiting other educational institutions and educationists. This variety of activity naturally made it a little difficult for her counterpart here to plan more specific business for her. The next visitor planned to do more specific things within the IER. The‘third visit was not totally successful mostly because of communication difficulties and lack of understanding between the IER and the visitor about his tasks in educational administration. His other specialization was in the area of language policies at the primary level. We actually did not know how to utilize his expertise for our purposes. The fourth visit, to the Department of Educational Psychology and Guidance, and a three-week visit for participation in a workshop were the most productive and successful ones from the IER’s standpoint. There is always a person who should be called the Director of the IER. According to our regulations, it matters little which person is holding that office at a particular point of time.
LINKING
HIGHER
EDUCATION
Although the Directors here gave as much as possible of their time in discussing matters with the visiting consultants, they tended to desire much more personal attention from the Directors than these were able to give. LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT Another aspect of the collaboration programme was that the donors made provisions for books and materials for replenishing the library of the IER. This has so far remained partially unrealized. This was an essential aspect of the development assistance as expected. The IER is disappointed that the book programme was not completed. The statement in the ULlE paper regarding temporary housing of the 200 books donated due to lack of security in the library is confusing and incorrect. A library that housed 35,000 volumes could not be like this. In fact, the visitors left them in the custody of the Department of Secondary Education in order to facilitate free use of the books, particularly by junior colleagues, who were making preparation for the ULIE admission tests. These books were also left there with the intention of making them more easily available to the next visiting consultant from the ULIE. The library regulations here are such that each user can borrow a limited number of books for a limited period under a strict regulation of the University of Dhaka in this regard. EDC OR INTERNATIONAL
STUDIES
In conclusion we should like to observe that the University of London Institute of Educa-
-
A RESPONSE
21
tion has a large number of specializations with many departments of which the Department of Education in Developing Countries is but one. The EDC department offers specialized degree programmes for students mostly coming from the underdeveloped world; the EDC department thinks that its work should be biased towards developing countries. But the IER welcomed contact with wider specializations in education irrespective of the ULIE department in which they were offered. It is also very interesting to note that those IER staff who had the opportunity of working in other departments of ULIE, such as the Department of Educational Psychology and Child Development, now appear to have benefited more. Overcoming the initial difficulties of the post-liberation days of Bangladesh, the IER is now gradually growing into a leading centre of excellence in this part of the world, initiating basic as well as action research studies and thus playing its cherished roles in national and regional development in the area of education. We believe in getting assistance from multilaterai sources of which the IER-ULIE link scheme is an important one. This scheme of collaboration has made its due contributions to our post-liberation struggle to replenish the staff with new insights and knowledge. We plan to develop the IER still more in order to reach those cherished goals for which it was established 23 years ago. We shall remember with gratitude the colleagues in the University of London Institute of Education and the University of Northern Colorado for their respective contributions as equal partners in widening the horizons of learning and truth.
lni .I Educo~ronoi Drv~lrymrr,r/, Pnnlcd ,n Grcar &,~a,,,
4. No
I. pp
17-Z I. 19X4
073R-OSY304
LINKING
HIGHER
EDUCATION ACROSS A RESPONSE* MAZHARUL
Institute
of Education
and Research,
l.ld
CONTINENTS
of Dhaka,
Dhaka
5, Bangladesh
establishing the Institute. Under a programme of cooperation between the USAID and the then government, the former provided financial assistance for the project and the University of Dhaka received professional and initial training support from the Colorado State College (later University of Northern Colorado) for its development. It may be mentioned that the University of Northern Colorado was one of the leading graduate institutions of higher learning in the areas of teacher education and educational research in the United States at that time. The professional staff deputed by the University of Northern Colorado for the purpose of developing the Institute of Education and Research worked under the contract and within the purview of authorities of the University of Dhaka. The group of these deputed teachers was treated as a group of teachers of the University of Dhaka and was under the administrative control of the Dhaka University authorities. The ULIE paper is incorrect to state that after 1968 the Institute became a part of the University of Dhaka. A better statement would be that after 1968 the University of Northern Colorado, and for that matter the USAID, phased out their respective roles in the programme of collaboration, replacing them with roles to be played by the local experts and the University of Dhaka authorities respectively. We should like to add that even during that period of development the expatriate staff of the University of Northern Colorado worked mostly as consultants to the local staff. It may be mentioned that the USAID had nothing to do with the internal affairs or professional activities of the IER during the period. The IER currently has about 38 teachers in addition to the supporting staff and about 250
AND HISTORY OF IER
The Institute of Education and Research, Unversity of Dhaka, was founded in 1959 as one of the two national institutions of its kind, as a result of the decision of the then government of the country. The other Institute was established at Lahore as part of the Punjab University. The Syndicate of the University of Dhaka founded the Institute of Education and Research in 1959 as an integral part of the University under a charter called the Statutes ‘Rerponre to Linda Dove (1983) BC‘TIK( conrinenrs. Ittrernarional De1~eloptuenr 3. 277-290.
+ 0.00
Pres
HAQUE
University
The ULIE paper is an analytical description of the progress of the first phase of the collaboration programme between the IER and the ULIE. The IER was asked to consider producing a response paper reviewing the link so that the insights and perceptions of one partner were shared fully by the other. The Academic Committee of the IER decided that we should prepare a response paper. A sub-committee was set up to review the paper and get it circulated among the teachers of the IER for their reactions. The Director has taken the responsibility of producing this paper which incorporates some of the ideas of the convener of the subcommittee, taking into consideration the views expressed by the IER staff. The ULIE paper makes some valid comments about the problems and constraints under which the IER functions. The IER has not been able to realize its objectives and aspirations during the last two decades of its existence and operation. But some comments and observations are not correct. BACKGROUND
$,.oll
Pereamon
Linking higher education Journal of Educarronal
17
18
M.HAQUE
students. Apart from doing their own basic research work and supervising research work of the M.Ed. and Ph.D. students the teachers participate in important national and international educational activities including action research and evaluative studies often sponsored by the government and international agencies. The teachers of the IER have made substantial contributions to educational innovations and experimental studies of national significance in recent years. The IER plays a leading role in all educational activities in this country today. The statement in the ULIE paper that in its early days the IER had a much larger staff and student population is incorrect. In fact, the staff and the student population were never larger than the current ones. The 1971 war was the War of Liberation which the people and armed forces of Bangladesh had to fight with Pakistani occupation forces to liberate the country. During that war some members of the IER staff were killed and a few Pakistanis who were on the IER staff had left for Pakistan. This event caused depletion in the staff strength for only a short period of time early in 1972. But the vacant positions were soon filled up by recruitment of promising and able young colleagues in place of the dismissed Pakistanis and those who had died during the War of Liberation. Most of these young colleagues had benefited by being trained in the University of London Institute of Education under the current collaboration programme. Revolutionary political situations, which have been referred to incidentally in the ULIE paper, as ‘civil disorders and military coups’ did not affect the programmes of the IER. However, it was true that during the period of the War of Liberation our library and laboratory resources were damaged to some extent and we naturally expected, without much success, to get some support for rebuilding them through the current collaboration programme with the ULIE. The IER has always had a very clearly defined role to play and a well-defined status within Dhaka University. These have been unambiguously defined in the Dhaka University Order 1973 and implemented accordingly in letter and spirit. The IER has not been a North American implant on the University of Dhaka. It has developed a unique programme which is
neither British-oriented nor USA-oriented. It has set an ideal before the University which is currently in the process of transforming the programmes of all the departments to follow this ideal. It is the first of a number of such Institutes in the University which have been established in recent years to follow its ideal of making higher education more responsive to the needs of the people. Without exception, all the teachers of the IER have at least a Master’s degree from the University and they have entered the Institute through a proper competitive channel. None has come from politics; some have prior school teaching experience or administrative (educational) experience of great eminence, both of which were explicitly set up as criteria for recruitment on the natural proposition that one could not possibly make others learn to ride a horse unless one had practical experience of riding. During the past two decades these persons have substantially demonstrated the feasibility of this proposition. The ULIE paper has misinterpreted the current trends for educational careers in Bangladesh. Our studies on educational sociology in Bangladesh convince us that careers in education including school teaching have been steadily rising in prestige and status and this is why academic high-fliers are going into teacher education in greater numbers. The IER teaching staff made some of their best contributions in the field of education and the IER emerged as a real national centre for educational research during the decade 1968-1978 when the scheme of cooperation with the ULIE began, with the new assurance of further development of its staff. During this decade vacancies were filled as soon as possible. DECISION-MAKING
PROCESSES
IN IER
The view that the IER staff, particularly the junior members, do not participate in the decision-making process is not based on facts. Decision-making at the IER never began and ended at the top at least so far as the link programme was concerned. Until the middle of 1980 all decisions had been made by the IER academic committee which consisted of about one-half of the faculty members including
LINKING
HIGHER
EDUCATION
representations from all categories of teachers. The new academic committee in which all the IER teaching staff are members came into being in the middle of 1980 as a statutory body of the Institute. Junior members’ points of view have equal weight in the decision-making process as the senior members’ not only in letter but also in practice. Even in the highest decision-making body of the IER, i.e. the Board of Governors, an assistant professor and even a lecturer were elected to represent the IER staff. Some months back the IER staff took a unanimous decision to rotate the chairmanship of departments among staff up to the level of assistant professor, somewhat similar to the position of Director which is rotated every three years among the professors and associate professors. Thus the IER functions through a democratic rather than a hierarchically organised process. The ULIE paper raises the issue of varying cultural styles when dealing with foreigners and particularly foreign donors. These reactions were sometimes misjudged by our colleagues of the EDC department. From the very beginning of the programme of collaboration our friends from the EDC department overemphasised the cultural differences between the two institutions. They also tended to have different ideas about the roles and tasks of the IER. DONOR-RECIPIENT RELATIONSHIPS We frankly admit that the IER, being at the receiving end of the link programme, had often felt obliged to accept many of the ideas imposed by the donors as well as the national authorities in order to keep the essential elements of the programme unaffected. Although the collective wisdom of the IER teachers was utilized for formulating the policies for the development plan under the programme of collaboration it had to be modified and adjusted to some extent due to a variety of limiting circumstances. For instance, the IER did not receive any support for developing an area like adult and non-formal education, which was included in the development plan, because ULIE, as the helping partner, could not do anything beyond its own areas of expertise. This domination also revealed itself in many
-
A RESPONSE
19
steps we tried to take in operating the scheme. One of the important aspects of the programme was the IER staff development and the other was the visits of ULIE consultants. We should like to begin here with the IER staff development . STAFF DEVELOPMENT According to the scheme document it was decided that the IER staff should be divided into two groups, namely senior and junior staff. The Academic Committee of the IER decided that all junior members (lecturers and assistant professors) who had not had any foreign experience should apply for a Master’s degree in the ULIE and avail themselves of the chance to go abroad if such a visit were helpful for the development of a specific programme in the department concerned. But since the number of such junior members was small and EDC department desired to receive a larger number of junior staff than that of senior staff, practically all junior members were ultimately selected for the programme and this was done in consultation with the other partner; two junior members of staff preferred to go to India for a Ph.D degree, one declined to go for personal reasons, and one dropped out of the programme after staying a few weeks in England. The question of politics or undue influence is not tenable. The number of places available was larger than the number of persons whom we could select for the purpose. The order in which these junior staff members were selected was also decided by the Academic Committee consisting at that tune of about one-half of the total staff strength. So even this much of selection was also based upon collective decision. This was approved by the Vice-Chancellor and the government of Bangladesh. In such a situation the question of external pressure cannot arise. With regard to the UK training programme, there are some differences of perception between the partner institutes. Due to language and cultural differences on the one hand and the fact that the contents and structure of the admission tests for MA degree programme of ULIE were based on those of the DipEd. of that institute, which were different from similar programmes in Bangladesh on the other, it was
20
M.
HAQUE
a little difficult for some junior IER staff to qualify for admission to an MA degree programme in the ULIE. Some IER staff wondered whether the EDC department should have made a case to relax the stringent admission requirements in order to accommodate the IER staff in the MA course in the ULIE. It may also be mentioned that personal choice, aptitudes and interests of each candidate coupled with the imposing forces of the donors represented by at least some ULIE visitors and the requirements of the IER development plan resulted in accommodative attitudes. This may be exemplified by the fact that instead of getting themselves admitted into the Dip.Ed. some junior IER staff preferred the Associateship of the ULIE. Since the number of senior members was large and since the sponsoring agency was ready to accommodate only a limited number of such visitors, the Academic Committee set up the following criteria for selection of persons for the senior staff development programme: at least one senior member from each department of the IER should visit ULIE if that person possessed the specialization in the area which was specified for developement in the plan. It was also decided that preferably the most senior members of the departments should visit the ULIE. The staff would orient and refresh themselves in new fields of knowledge developed during the last one-and-a-half decades in the advanced countries. But one who had spent a considerable time abroad in the recent past or one whose area of specialization did not agree with the development plan could not be considered for selection under the programme. Each application was carefully considered by a selection committee and its recommendations were appproved by the Academic Committee, the Dhaka University authorities and the government of Bangladesh. Ultimately, long before each visit, the British Council and the ULIE authorities had to approve these selections. The Director of the IER and the ULIE coordinator had opportunities to discuss frankly the merit of each selection. The question of undesirable influences cannot arise in this scheme of things. The IER authorities tried to resist any attempt of this kind and was perfectly successful. However, it may be men-
tioned that the Department of Science and Mathematics and the Department of Business Education had to be eliminated from the programme, because at that time we decided to abolish Business Education and the ULIE was unable to accommodate the other department in the scheme. VISITORS
TO IER
The initial visits of some of the ULIE consultants were not entirelv successful from IER’s standpoint. The first visitor, the coordinator, came here with the tasks of assessing the role of the IER within teacher education in the country as a whole, mapping out specific activities for the collaboration programme, rendering tutorial assistance to the junior members of the staff who were making preparation for the ULIE admission tests, giving orientation to the senior members, holding private and public discussions with individuals and groups inside and outside the IER, discussing problems with the Director, evaluating the degree programmes of the IER, visiting research project sites with groups of IER teachers, giving some seminars for staff and students, liaising with national and international development agencies, exploring possibilities for further collaboration with other agencies in Bangladesh, visiting other educational institutions and educationists. This variety of activity naturally made it a little difficult for her counterpart here to plan more specific business for her. The next visitor planned to do more specific things within the IER. The‘third visit was not totally successful mostly because of communication difficulties and lack of understanding between the IER and the visitor about his tasks in educational administration. His other specialization was in the area of language policies at the primary level. We actually did not know how to utilize his expertise for our purposes. The fourth visit, to the Department of Educational Psychology and Guidance, and a three-week visit for participation in a workshop were the most productive and successful ones from the IER’s standpoint. There is always a person who should be called the Director of the IER. According to our regulations, it matters little which person is holding that office at a particular point of time.
LINKING
HIGHER
EDUCATION
Although the Directors here gave as much as possible of their time in discussing matters with the visiting consultants, they tended to desire much more personal attention from the Directors than these were able to give. LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT Another aspect of the collaboration programme was that the donors made provisions for books and materials for replenishing the library of the IER. This has so far remained partially unrealized. This was an essential aspect of the development assistance as expected. The IER is disappointed that the book programme was not completed. The statement in the ULlE paper regarding temporary housing of the 200 books donated due to lack of security in the library is confusing and incorrect. A library that housed 35,000 volumes could not be like this. In fact, the visitors left them in the custody of the Department of Secondary Education in order to facilitate free use of the books, particularly by junior colleagues, who were making preparation for the ULIE admission tests. These books were also left there with the intention of making them more easily available to the next visiting consultant from the ULIE. The library regulations here are such that each user can borrow a limited number of books for a limited period under a strict regulation of the University of Dhaka in this regard. EDC OR INTERNATIONAL
STUDIES
In conclusion we should like to observe that the University of London Institute of Educa-
-
A RESPONSE
21
tion has a large number of specializations with many departments of which the Department of Education in Developing Countries is but one. The EDC department offers specialized degree programmes for students mostly coming from the underdeveloped world; the EDC department thinks that its work should be biased towards developing countries. But the IER welcomed contact with wider specializations in education irrespective of the ULIE department in which they were offered. It is also very interesting to note that those IER staff who had the opportunity of working in other departments of ULIE, such as the Department of Educational Psychology and Child Development, now appear to have benefited more. Overcoming the initial difficulties of the post-liberation days of Bangladesh, the IER is now gradually growing into a leading centre of excellence in this part of the world, initiating basic as well as action research studies and thus playing its cherished roles in national and regional development in the area of education. We believe in getting assistance from multilaterai sources of which the IER-ULIE link scheme is an important one. This scheme of collaboration has made its due contributions to our post-liberation struggle to replenish the staff with new insights and knowledge. We plan to develop the IER still more in order to reach those cherished goals for which it was established 23 years ago. We shall remember with gratitude the colleagues in the University of London Institute of Education and the University of Northern Colorado for their respective contributions as equal partners in widening the horizons of learning and truth.