In 1897, French philosopher Emile Durkheim published Suicide which was to be one of his most famous works. In it he showed that marriage has a preservative effect against suicide which benefits only men. Recent research strongly suggests that most success stories, from Facebook to Shakespeare, are accidental products of randomness and cumulative advantage.
Both of these information mentioned above are results of studies that are part of the wide discipline of Social Sciences. Social Science concerns itself with society and the relationships of individuals within a society.Social studies education helps explain the world in which we live in. It denotes the limits of human intuition and thus underlines the need to investigate human affairs in a scientific manner.
And yet it is difficult to find a high school student wishing to become a political scientist or musicologist. It is a trait that is simply not encouraged in Bangladesh. When asked, most will vie for a medical or engineering degree, if not law. This definitely roots in the social conditioning, which in turn, is rooted in financial benefits. Given the economic status of the middle class and new entrants in this particular social stratum, after the liberation war, it was only expected for parents to want a monetarily secured future for their children. This in turn has also resulted in lack of entrepreneurial aspirations in the people but that is beyond the scope of this write-up.
Before seceding from Pakistan, Bangladesh had a total of 6 public universities in the country. Up to 2010 six universities funded by the University Grant Commission officially undertook social science research. Other than these, in 1976 Bangladesh Social Science Research Council (BSSRC) was established to understand socio-economic conditions, for shaping and developing policies and their evaluation, promoting and developing social science research, and for coordinating the activities and programmes of the institutions doing social science research. Besides, a few autonomous institutions have been set up by the government and under private ownership, to conduct policy-oriented research on development economics, demography, international relations and other social sciences related to national development and social welfare planning.
Despite these institutes, the standard of social science research has been anything but substandard in the country. And the primary reason may yet be financial: “.. crux of the problem is that the best talent to jobs in education sector cannot be always ensured due to real pay and facilities compared to civil services and private sector opportunities.”(Monem 2010) This implies that the best minds often are not even part of higher education system as a profession due to low wages.With the exception of Economics, wages in the other disciplines have consistently been low. The demand for higher education in disciplines like history and political science is declining throughout the region, due to their limited career opportunities.
This fear is repeated in the 2007 Indian Council of Social Science Research Report (p. 20) that observes that while the scale and range of social science research has expanded since independence, it has failed to provide expected impact due to the nature, scope and most importantly quality of research to better understand the socioeconomic processes. As a result, public policy domain has not been able to extract benefit from the research. All in all there is a feeling that the resources spent for research have not been commensurate. Although aimed at India, the above is also true for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan as the 2010 World Social Sciences report published by UNESCO concludes.
It is revealed that in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, social scientists merely teach and do not undertake any research due to lack of proper funding from government. These three countries also do not label the study of social sciences with high social value. The number of articles published from the region is compared in the following table as well as the highest contributor to social science research in the region, India, is compared with the rest of the world.
All over the world graduate schools are the hub of research related activities, be it in the sciences, engineering or humanities discipline. Research activity and publication in peer-reviewed journals is mandatory for faculty members to progress or sometimes even to remain in the profession of teaching. In Bangladesh this trait is strangely missing. A frustrated editor of a Sociology Journal mentions this in a recent editorial: “…There is very little need to read. To go ahead in life and career at the universities, either as a student or even as a faculty member, reading or doing research is no longer a requirement. Students pass their exams reading hand written notes handed down through the generations or poorly compiled notebooks. Faculty members do not need to read for the simple reason that they are never challenged in the classroom. Also, there are other and more assured avenues of getting promoted.”(Nazrul Islam, Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology July 2013)
Another important characteristic of the research done in the field is that it is often initiated, if not also funded, by NGOs and international donor agencies. The initiatives are often driven by specific agenda of that agency in the region and are part of bigger global politics. Hence the outcome is hardly a true reflection of society nor does it supply us with dependable literature to understand our social crises to the fullest.
However the problem is not financial only. It is also in the mindset of the people as stated in the beginning of the article. Of course the system is such that students with top scores may only enter the study of the sciences. But never in the long twelve year of schooling are the students motivated, either by their parents or teachers, to take up studying subjects from the humanities branch. This results not only in getting students who had nothing better to choose from to study philosophy or history but also a genuine lack of respect for the disciplines.
The problem with the lack of genuine interest in social studies have reached such a point in Bangladesh that even many reputed universities cannot find appropriate faculty to teach their classes. In the experience of this very writer it was found that a civil engineer by profession was teaching Sociology classes in a well reputed private university, teachers with environmental science background were given classes of rural development to teach. A class full of pupils who are not genuinely interested in the subject matter being taught by a teacher who evidently has no clear idea about the topic cannot but produce something spectacular.
The immense importance of study of the society, its traits, social classes, social values and associated philosophical ideas must be clear to all sane Bangladeshis by now. The term “krantikal” or transitory period has never had as much weight for Bangladesh as it has in the past year. In this period, the people of the country have been subject to such stipulations as to choosing nationality over religion, the status of religion in an individual’s life, of tolerance, individualism and of political philosophy. Sadly though, if one turned to look up some literature to make sense of it all, one would come back with next to nothing in the context of Bangladesh.
Social Science is rooted in the moral philosophy of the time. It is only likely that an encouraging environment to study philosophy, history, sociology and other similar subjects might have provided us with a better understanding of current society. Bangladesh today stands on a lot of hypothesis drawn up on tea table conversations but not any solid scientific work about the shape and path that society has taken. At this time, specific and particular policy agenda needs to be pushed ahead by the remaining educationists to fill this knowledge gap and leave adequate directions for society to evolve upon.
