Saturday, December 13, 2008

Poor Performance Of Bangladeshi Research Organizations: Where Are The Problems?

Frequently we read news that Non Resident Bangladeshi scientists have done this or that excellent research in this or that field or have won prize for his invention or discovery. Though no statistics can be provided but those who are active in different internet based groups of Bangladeshi will agree that there is hardly any world class laboratory where Bangladeshi scientists are not working. Not only that every year increasing number of Bangladeshi science graduates going to the scientifically advanced and proficient countries including USA,UK, Japan, Singapore , Canada, Norway, Korea for PhD or postdoctoral research. At least from this increasing number, we can guess that performance of Bangladeshi science graduates in international standard is satisfactory. This increasing trend indicates high ability of research of Bangladeshi science graduates.

If this is the case, then why the performance of our national research organizations is not at the satisfactory level? Where are the problems?

We need to analyse and find out the reasons for poor performance and take measures accordingly.

Before that we need to know what is performance or what are the factors determining performance. Otherwise we will not be able to find real cause of such poor performance.


The equation for performance is , Performance = ability X motivation.

From the equation we see that the two factors are equality important for performance. Decrease or fall in anyone affects performance and the other factor. If ability is poor or ability can not be utilized, motivation decreases. If motivation is not enough, ability can not be utilized properly. In both the cases, performance decreases. So recruiting able researcher is not enough, keeping them motivated is equally important.

Now come to the point. Where are the problems in Bangladeshi research organisations, in the ability or motivation of the researchers ? Is it that science graduates working in the Bangladeshi laboratories are not able? Or can not utilize their ability? Or not motivated enough to utilize their ability? Answers of these three questions are critical for improvement of performance of Bangladeshi research organizations.

To get answer of the first question, we need to keep in mind that to join in national research organizations one must have at least three first class results in their four degrees/certificates. A large number of very brilliant graduates also join in these organizations. On the other hand, graduates with very good results, good results and below average (with two second class) results go abroad for higher study and then join in research jobs. So we can not say that the average ability of the researchers in national research organizations is poor than the average ability of NRB scientists. So dearth in ability of scientists in Bangladesh is not the cause of poor performance of our national research organizations.

Then is inability to utilize their ability the cause of poor performance? Or lack of motivation to utilize ability or improve ability?

Yes, these are the cause of poor performance of our national research organizations. Then comes the question, why they are not able to utilize their ability or not motivated enough to utilize and improve ability?

What are the specific reasons for which they can not utilize their ability? Lengthy and faulty procurement process for which they don’t know whether they will get the instruments and equipments they are ordering or if yes, and then do not know when. Lengthy and faulty procurement process for which they can not buy whenever and whatever chemicals and reagents they need? Faulty procurement for which any one can get tender for supplying instruments and equipments in these organizations though they don’t have service engineer for installation, giving training on operation and post sale service? One example can be given from the experience of the author. A multifunctional microscope came to one laboratory of the largest research organization of the country at the end of 2006. But those who were working in the lab since august 2003, didn’t know who ordered it and for what purpose. The person who came to handover the microscope didn’t know how to operate it and could not train the users. Similarly, at the beginning of financial year, each laboratory has to give requisition of equipment, instruments and reagents and chemicals as per the allocated fund. People usually give requisition so that all of the allocated fund will be used whether they require all these things or not. They do because if a laboratory can not spend all the money, next time budget of the laboratory will be reduced. If such is the procurement process, how come researchers use their full ability?

Is there any measure to keep the researchers motivated? Neither sticks nor carrot. If some one do excel in his work, no reward. If some one becomes too lethargic, no sticks to wake him up. Such lethargic person gets sympathy during promotion due to seniority. No quality checking of research. Paper for Publication can be sent without sending it through proper channel though using the name of the organization.

Are these all for poor performance of our research organizations? Certainly not.

Disrupted power supply is another reason of poor performance of these organizations. During summer, electricity supply is so disrupted that it is difficult to carry out any experiment for two hours continuously. This problem should be brought to the notice of minister or high official of the ministry. But interesting thing is done during the visit of the ministers or high officials. It is done not to bring the problem to the notice, rather to hide the problem. The Administration of the organization request the local distributor of electricity to keep supply of power at least for the time of the visit of the VIP. They never contact with them other time for constant power supply in the organization. This is the authors experience in his research organization.

Are All reasons for poor performance discussed? No, one major cause is yet to be mentioned. What’s that ? Every body knows it. So even without mentioning it , question can be asked . How much of our research fund is utilized and how much is wasted? Can we utilize 25% of our resources? If the fund is doubled but the management is as inefficient as it is now, what will be consequence of increasing fund? Wastage of money or improvement in research? If fund increases from 100tk to 200tk but its utilization efficiency is still 25%( author’s assumption is that the fund utilization efficiency of Bangladeshi research organization is 25%, in no way it is more than 35%), 50 TK will be utilized and wastage will be 150tk. But even if funding is 100TK, but efficiency is increased to above 50 %, more than 50 TK will be utilized. If efficiency is 75%, then?
So before increasing fund, making the management process efficient to get maximum output of input (Input) more important.
What should be done to create wave in the stagnant pond of Bangladeshi research organizations will be discussed later.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

A good analysis.

Regards, Sorowar

Anonymous said...

The problems are:
A scientist should have the norm not to get any privilege from others

and not to give any scope to others without the right quality, quantity and

qualification. But we Bangladeshi people can advise others but we cannot sacrifice

for the best of our motherland. Other visible causes are:



1. Political shelter for promotions and power. A scientist should not

run for power.

2. Corrupted education ministry in allocating politically biased international

scholarships.

3. Corrupted UCG in distributing scholarships to the right person and poor academic quality assessment for the University courses and researches.

4. Lack of good ethics among the University professor those who justify the research proposal.

5. Underestimating the true researchers because they are not involved in politics.

6. Not to accommodate foreign scholars to the Universities and research centres.

7. Old professor/principal investigators those who no longer involved in research.

Md. Abul Hasnat said...

I think Alauddin Ahmed vai mentioned about the government research organizations.

This analysis is very good. It would be better for us if we can read the list of all research organizations in Bangladesh.

Anonymous said...

Yes, I agree with you. Process should be improved before making more investment to avoid wastage of money. Certainly, a poor country like bangladesh cannot afford such wastage. But what can be done to improve the process. Motivation of improving the process should be done from people who is the key responsible or policy maker of these processes.

Two main prerequitsites for a country to develop is manpower and technnology. We had manpower, no doubt but we don't have technology focus to improve us. The quest for improving technology by initiating research with specific goals should be motivated and initiated basically from top level to down level, i.e from government, ministry responsible to organizaions, university etc...

I dont know how it can be done..because in the top level of our country, we have lack of people who have good understanding of technology and how to improve it by research activites.

But, in advanced countries, this harmonization of research activities and the overall process come from top level so that all the research organizaion and universities can work together to accomplish certain goals to improve the technolgy overall. For example, a city had emphasis on certain technology and all the universities and research organizaion within that city had same focus in some advanced countries. So, the research is done on zone basis to support good collaboration between industry and academia.

We have to find our way, how to harmonize our research activities to make most out of researchers and our money invested.


This is just my own thoughts to add, you may have differnt thinking. Thanks for your post.

Moinul Islam,
Erasmus Masters Student,
Sweden.

Anonymous said...

Well, there are tons of problems, but a good point to start with will be to start projects. Again all the problems are related to corruption and improper governance, still we should think about recruiting people who can bring projects with funding to educational and research institutions. How much money can we afford to just teach or explore without any productive results or patents? The fact is, in this stage, we must do something that is useful. Otherwise nobody is going to pay attention. Let me be a little bit bitter to say the truth-the universities and research institutions do not have sufficient turnoer rates- all the money spent is a one way process. How can we survive just on the mercey of the government? So the bottomline is that we have to recruit people who can generate funding, specially from foreign sources.