Brain Drain : a coming crisis or arrived already ?
Bangladesh is a country of 156.6 million people and has a huge number of potential human resources who are graduating every year . They have held the future of this country but this aspiration is somehow turning to be a concerning issue . The issue is no more how well they could be educated ; it is more about how we may not waste them .
Education scientists spot the issue as “ Brain Drain ”. Brain Drain is a term that means “ the departure of educated or professional people from one country , economic sector , or field for another usually for better pay or living conditions ”. Brain drain happens throughout the world but specifically , it happens in middle and lower income countries more in quota . In Bangladesh , we also lose huge human resource every year and the number is alarmingly rising .
Government invests millions for educating the students each year with the expectation to turn the generation to an asset who will lead the nation but the number of immigrant students and proficient people is higher which results in a complete waste of Human resource . There are two factors present in this process of Brain Draining : Push factors and Pull factors . Push factors encourage them to leave the own land and Pull factors attract them to the second country .
There are so many push factors in Bangladesh right now , major of them are life condition and lack of proper employment opportunities . When a student or professional acquires a level of criterion they no longer intend to lead their life in a middle-income country like Bangladesh . Overseas countries like the USA , Canada , Australia , and Germany offer better service , more wealth , and higher employment opportunities , ambitious candidates often choose to emigrate there . These are the pull factors . This might seem cheesy but a satisfactory number of students have marked traffic jam as a reason they prefer to move abroad , when there were other reasons too , such corruption , and low pay scale .
This immigration is turning out to be a huge loss for our country , it is undeniable that we live in a country which is yet to be developed to ensure the luxury of life for the majority if not all but the education we receive in our country from childhood also teach us patriotism and the responsibility towards motherland . It is not the government only who is responsible for the progress , it on us too . Not refusing the fact that everyone has rights to better education from home or abroad , who worked hard to be proficient does not deserve less but our question is if the skilled and bright minds leave the nation behind who will bring the change ?
* Iffath Yeasmine , enrolled undergraduate student in International Relations , University of Chittagong . She is a youth activist engaged with NGOs and INGOs and has worked as assistant researcher . But she proudly presents herself as the head of Documentation at Chittagong University Model United Nations Association .