CA Yunus calls for shift from job-focused education

Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus today (13 January) described South Asia as 'one family' and urged countries in the region to work together and learn from each other, calling upon all to come out from the education system, which is mostly job-oriented.

"So, you're in the right place and see what it means to our region. Our region is a one totality. It's not piece that doesn't fit into the picture. It is a one whole picture. We work together. We learn from each other. We are a family," he said.

"So, we have to rediscover ourselves. I hope it will mean something to you," he said while speaking as the chief guest at the inaugural session of the three-day 'South Asian Regional Conference on State of Higher Education and Future Pathway' in Dhaka.

Yunus said education system in this region is job-oriented. "If he or she [student] fails to take a job, we think failure on the part of the student, not us."

"Why would you design a job oriented education? That you have to have a degree to go to the job market?"

Yunus said his position has always been that human beings are not born as slaves and each human being is a free person.

"Job comes from the tradition of slavery. You slave for somebody. You don't like the job but you do it because they pay you. That's slavery. My lonely voice saying that human beings are born as creative being. That's why we survived in this planet as a creative being. From the very day we are born, we are creative. Even as a baby, we are creative. Creativity is essence of human being," said the chief adviser.

Yunus said job takes away creativity. "You take orders. That's slavery."

These young people who marched on the street refused to be slaves and refused to take orders, he said, noting that "And that's where the conflict began."

So, what kind of education will you be giving? Yunus said.

"You may dismiss it. You may pause for a while. But this is my point. Should we continue this education to create slaves? Turning creative beings into slaves? That's a criminal job," Prof Yunus said.

So, Yunus said, he translated that creativity into entrepreneurship.

"Entrepreneur is a creative thing. Why can't we teach entrepreneurs rather than job seekers? Tell young people you are not job seekers, you are job creators. You are agents of change. You create things the way you imagine," he said, adding that imagination is the essence of human being.

Yunus said human beings are not born to be practical but they are born with enormous power of imagination.

"That's what drives them. Makes them fall crazy. That's why they gave lives imagination. They had nothing on the street. They had an imagination. We want to build a new Bangladesh. That's our slogan. And they were committed to it. Didn't give up."