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Students Struggle to Read Long Books, Oxford Professor Claims
Rtv News
08 Oct 2024, 16:10
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Sir Jonathan Bate, a professor of English literature at the University of Oxford, has said that many young people applying to higher education have not read extensively.
Bate, who is also a foundation professor of environmental humanities at Arizona State University, said that this drop in ability can be pinpointed down to one key factor - diversity drives at higher education establishments.
He conceded that shorter attention spans are also to blame, though the problem lies within recruitment drives.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: "The currently fashionable answer is that it’s to do with the attrition of attention span due to smartphones, six-minute YouTube videos, and instant TikTok dopamine hits."
"It all begins in schools. You only have to look at the thinning of the GCSE and A-level syllabuses and the tendency to prescribe works because they’re shorter. I think of it as the John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men effect — they would never prescribe the Grapes of Wrath anymore but Of Mice and Men is nice and short."
He said that a key difference between students in state schools and private schools is the length of literary material they are exposed to.
Bate added that it was "an unintended consequence of the push in both the elite British and American universities towards diversity and access … because of course, those students come from disadvantaged schools where the teachers’ main task is crowd control, and so the demands in terms of reading long books are just not there."
Elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge have been trying to recruit more state school students, with successful applicants more than doubling in the last six years.
Meanwhile, admissions from private schools have dropped.
Bate said that he had witnessed this attainment gap firsthand whilst teaching at Oxford.
"They were able students, but they simply hadn’t been exposed to large numbers of long books," he said. "They hadn’t developed that habit of concentrated, lengthy reading which private schools in both the UK and the US concentrate on."
He said that in previous years, students could get through three novels in a week, though now many will barely be able to read one every three weeks.
Bate said that this is worrying for the future if the reading levels continue to dip.
"If you haven’t got readers, what are writers going to do? The intensive, thoughtful, quiet reading of great books is good for mental health. It’s very, very good for developing skills of concentration and critical thinking, and if that falls away, that is problematic for businesses, for society, for individuals."
By Holly Bishop
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Increasing Age Limit for Govt Jobs to Become a Burden for Country?
Although the demand to increase the age of entry and retirement from government service in Bangladesh is not entirely new, it has recently been discussed again.
Job aspirants have protested this demand at various times. The organization of administrative cadre officers 'Administrative Service Association' applied to the cabinet department on September 5 to make the maximum age limit for entry into service 35 and retirement age 65 years.
Since the matter falls within the scope of the Ministry of Public Administration, the Cabinet Division sent the letter or proposal to the Ministry of Public Administration on September 18.
Some people think that because of that letter, the age limit can be increased from both sides.
In that case, the question is whether the implementation of this new proposal regarding increasing the age limit of employment will create more burden along with the increasing expenditure of the state.
There are many questions about the rationale for increasing the age limit.
What is the rationale for increasing the age limit?
At present, the maximum age limit for entering government service is 30 years, and the maximum retirement age is 59 years. However, there is an exception in the case of freedom fighter quota holders. The age of entry into service is 32 years and the retirement age is 60 years.
The age limit is not high only for freedom fighters. Retirement age is also higher in certain professions. This is where the Administrative Service Association finds the discrepancy.
For example, according to the 'Public University Teachers (Retirement) Act, of 2012', the retirement age of public university teachers is 65 years.
According to Article 96 of the Constitution, the retirement age of Supreme Court judges is 67 years.
The organization said in its letter that many of those who have been appointed contractually for various periods in the government service have a retirement age of more than 67 years.
Meanwhile, according to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) 2023 survey, the average life expectancy of people in Bangladesh is 72.3 years, which is higher than two decades ago.
Those who are raising the demand feel that the age limit for employment should be fixed following the life span.
In this context, the president of the organization Anwar Ullah told BBC Bangla, "Since the average life expectancy has increased, if the retirement age is not increased, there remains an issue of economic security."
Although many disagreed with his statement.
After the interim government assumed power, many government employees were promoted simultaneously. One of the reasons for this is that many people did not get regular promotions during the Sheikh Hasina government.
Anwar Ullah was asked whether the demand to increase the age limit is being made to compensate the government employees who have been deprived for more than a century.
In reply, he said, "There is no reason to think that this is to give opportunity to the deprived. Because those who are getting promoted, their salary will not increase much. Only the tenure will increase."
As many arguments against raising the age limit
Anwar Ullah, however, says that raising the age limit in the service will not increase salaries or costs by much.
However, experts think that raising the age limit will increase the cost to the government. Along with that many complications can be created in administration activities.
For those who have not been able to join the government service despite trying for years or who are nearing the end of the age limit for government service or who are deprived of various privileges of government service due to political reasons, increasing the age limit is an opportunity for them.
But those who prepare for new government jobs will fall amid unequal competition.
Economist Mostafizur Rahman, a Distinguished Fellow of the Center for Policy Dialogue or CPD, thinks that the government will be under pressure in the long run.
"Raising the retirement age has immediate and medium long-term effects. Extending the retirement period will delay the pension pressure. But when you have to pay, you have to pay more," he said.
A large portion of Bangladesh's budget is spent on salaries and allowances of government employees.
In the current financial year, 81,580 crores have been allocated for the salaries and allowances of government officials and employees. Before that, the allocation for this sector in the financial year 2023-2024 was 77,489 crores.
In that case, if the proposal to increase the retirement age limit is accepted, the government will have to increase the allocation in this sector.
Another area of complication related to raising the age limit for entry into government jobs is unemployment.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics or BBS, the number of unemployed people in Bangladesh is 25,90,000. However, in reality, the number is higher according to economists.
Besides, according to the Bangladesh Institute of Development Research or BIDS, the unemployment rate in the country is 3.6 percent. Out of this youth unemployment is about 80 percent.
Experts believe that the inclination of the youth of Bangladesh towards government jobs is now high. If the entry age is raised further, many of this vast workforce will eventually prepare for employment with the hope of 'getting a government job one day'.
As a result, the economy will suffer as these youth cannot be employed for a long time.
However, economist Mostafizur Rahman also thinks, "Not everyone is hoping for a government job." If they don't get a job with a job test, they might work somewhere else."
Other Complications and Questions
Former Secretary Abu Alam Shahid Khan thinks that increasing the age limit is not logical. Because for the last 10 years there has been no problem of session congestion, if a student studies regularly, he gets a chance to take the exam at least seven times up to 30 years.
"Even if there is an exam in two years, he gets two to three chances. Still, I don't know why this movement has been going on for quite some time," said Mr. Khan.
Also, there is the question of how well entrants at the end of the age spectrum will be able to adapt to younger workers.
Mr. Khan says, "When you join the job as a young, energetic, fresh graduate, the amount of work you can do, you can't do at 35."
Terming the demand to raise the retirement age limit to 65 years as a "funny thing", Mr. Khan said, "Raising it will create sterility in government jobs."
The age has been increased before
Previously, the age of entry into government service in Bangladesh was 27 years and the retirement age was 57 years.
But in 1991, although the retirement age was not increased, the age of entry into service was increased to 30 years. Then in 2011, the retirement age was increased to 59 years.
At that time, the job aspirants protested to raise the age of entry into the job again the next year after raising the retirement age. But the then government did not respond to it.
In 2019 also, former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had to face questions regarding making the age limit for entering the service to 35 years.
She then said that raising the entry age to 35 would be a "pathetic situation".
She argued that after 35 years of job examination, completion of training takes 37 years to join. "Then who will run a government?" she asked.
Meanwhile, job aspirants took to the streets last May to raise the age limit.
However, the President of the organization of government employees, Md. Ullah said that they can demand the government from their place to raise the age limit. "But if the government like it, they can do 32 to 33 to enter. On the other hand, 60 to 61 to retire."
Students Struggle to Read Long Books, Oxford Professor Claims
Sir Jonathan Bate, a professor of English literature at the University of Oxford, has said that many young people applying to higher education have not read extensively.
Bate, who is also a foundation professor of environmental humanities at Arizona State University, said that this drop in ability can be pinpointed down to one key factor - diversity drives at higher education establishments.
He conceded that shorter attention spans are also to blame, though the problem lies within recruitment drives.
Speaking to the BBC, he said: "The currently fashionable answer is that it’s to do with the attrition of attention span due to smartphones, six-minute YouTube videos, and instant TikTok dopamine hits."
"It all begins in schools. You only have to look at the thinning of the GCSE and A-level syllabuses and the tendency to prescribe works because they’re shorter. I think of it as the John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men effect — they would never prescribe the Grapes of Wrath anymore but Of Mice and Men is nice and short."
He said that a key difference between students in state schools and private schools is the length of literary material they are exposed to.
Bate added that it was "an unintended consequence of the push in both the elite British and American universities towards diversity and access … because of course, those students come from disadvantaged schools where the teachers’ main task is crowd control, and so the demands in terms of reading long books are just not there."
Elite universities such as Oxford and Cambridge have been trying to recruit more state school students, with successful applicants more than doubling in the last six years.
Meanwhile, admissions from private schools have dropped.
Bate said that he had witnessed this attainment gap firsthand whilst teaching at Oxford.
"They were able students, but they simply hadn’t been exposed to large numbers of long books," he said. "They hadn’t developed that habit of concentrated, lengthy reading which private schools in both the UK and the US concentrate on."
He said that in previous years, students could get through three novels in a week, though now many will barely be able to read one every three weeks.
Bate said that this is worrying for the future if the reading levels continue to dip.
"If you haven’t got readers, what are writers going to do? The intensive, thoughtful, quiet reading of great books is good for mental health. It’s very, very good for developing skills of concentration and critical thinking, and if that falls away, that is problematic for businesses, for society, for individuals."
By Holly Bishop
Committee Formed to Assess Spending on New Curriculum Implementation
A committee has been formed by the Ministry of Education to determine how much money has been spent on the implementation of the widely discussed and criticized new curriculum.
Confirming the matter on Wednesday, October 9, Professor Dr. A K M Riazul Hasan, Chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), stated that a five-member committee has been formed to ascertain the total expenditure on implementing the new curriculum thus far. The committee will be led by a member of the NCTB and supported by four other members. Their task is to investigate and report how much money has been spent on the new curriculum implementation up to this point.
Earlier, on September 1, the Ministry of Education issued a notification stating that the new curriculum is not feasible for implementation. A revised curriculum will be taught from 2026.
The notification also mentioned that with the collaboration of education experts, curriculum and assessment specialists, education administrators, and representatives from civil society and parents, the final version of the revised curriculum will be completed in 2025 and fully implemented in 2026. It also stated that teaching and assessment will follow the curriculum from 2012 until then.
