Sunday, December 4, 2011

Prejudice and Our University Education

During my university days two sentences were widely spoken among the students, “I will never marry a BNCC guy/gal”, “I avoid BNCC people, they are dangerous, selfish/complex”.


If you are a Bangladesh National Cadet Core (BNCC) member I will advice you to not to be worried about your marriage and social belongingness. Here BNCC means Barisal, Noakhali, Comilla, Chandpur. Sometimes people replace chandpur with chittagong.

Now lets see some stories…………

After completing BBA most of my close friends did not continue with my department (Marketing, DU) for MBA. They took admission in another department and I used to spend time with them during my leisure. My friends used to gossip about their teachers during our hang out that time. One day I was impressed after hearing about the class of one of their teachers and I decided to attend his class. I observed his teaching method is very impressive and he prefers to cite real life example. To answer a question from his student he cited an example “ It is not required to take birth in Noakhali to be a Noakhailla. If you see someone is mean-minded, then u can say him Noakhailla. It does not matter, where his home district is”. This teacher chaired two departments of DU, an elected president of Dhaka University teachers association. He also garlanded some other important positions of Dhaka University and other state owned institutions.

While I was in a Multi-National company as a TM, one day my boss Regional Sales Manager(A masters from Rajshahi University) phoned me to send him the weekly inventory status of my territory. As he was supposed to use laptop for reporting purpose I forwrded the report via e-mail. After some hours he agin phoned me and saying in compalining tone “ You Noakhailla people (My home district is Laxmipur) are oversmart and complex, I asked you send the weekly report but you mailed that, you are desired to send it via sms. I dislike Noakhillas for their over smartness”. Off the record, this irritating educated(?) guy is also one of the reasons of my resignation from the company.

This is the story of a corporate executive who garduted from BUET prior to his MBA from IBA, DU. He is a pious muslim as well as effiecient performer. One day one of his female subordinates was asking for suggesion for her promotion interview which was scheduled to be held on next day. At a point of the suggesion that superior told her, “be decent in dress up during the interview and don’t wear any Noakhailla type dress”. This guy regularly use the term “Noakhailla” to describe some one inefficient, unsmart, uncultured.

All these cases are example of prejudice. Now lets see how prejudice is defined and what are the outcome of prejudice.

Prejudice (or foredeeming) is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover". The word prejudice is most often used to refer to preconceived judgments toward people or a person because of race, social class, ethnicity, age, disability, obesity, religion, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics. It also means beliefs without knowledge of the facts and may include "any unreasonable attitude that is unusually resistant to rational influence. In other words, Prejudice is a cultural attitude that rests on negative stereotypes about individuals or groups because of their cultural, religious, racial, or ethnic background.

Although there is no wide agreement as to the "cause" of prejudice and discrimination, there is a consensus that they constitute a learned behavior. The internalization of prejudice starts with parents and, later, teachers--the groups primary in the formation of attitudes within children. The media and social institutions solidify prejudicial attitudes, giving them social legitimacy. Prejudice and discrimination produce immense effects in the psychological, social, political, and economic domains. Whether intended or not, the effects are compounded by the loss of self-worth, a sense of alienation from the wider society, political disempowerment, and economic inequalities.

I guess you are feeling a bit confuesd about my intention or the merit of the write up. I believe education enlighten a person, it broaden the mind, it makes people to think logically. But all three guys of my examples are higher educated. One is a pioneer teacher of University of Dhaka, one studied in BUET and IBA,DU (Best Engineering University & Best business school of the country). But they think like uneducated Tom, Dick & Harry. A person should be judged by her personality, thoughts, and activities. Not by her sex, religion, locality, etc. But we are very unfortunate that our top university’s students, graduates and even teachers are not free from prejudice. The purpose of a university is “to create knowledge and disburse knowledge”. But I don't know what our universities create and disburse.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I undeniably accept your reasoning and the theory of prejudice but at the same time it is universal that something to rumor is something to happen truly and this might be the fact why the so-called majority in Bangladesh bashes the BNCC. The fertility of soil and genetic endowment that carries generations in these regions to behave complex and critically cannot be condone. Blacksheeps are available in every community but BNCC is proud producing Machiavellians in numbers and moves ahead. Getting things and achieving something in life is no harm but taking it in chicanery manner is no praiseworthy. And such vulpine and crafty blood is taking by the majority of BNCC’s.