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Yes, cadet colleges do serve national interests

EKRAM KABIR
Many ex-cadets are involved in poverty reduction projects, HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, healthcare, relief operations after any disaster, etc. Therefore, it wouldn't be fair to say they are absent in this sector.***
IT was heartening to see the article "Wistful memories and unfulfilled promises’ by Mushfiqur Rahman in The Daily Star on December 15. I was greatly attracted to the theme of Mr. Rahman s piece. The first half of the article describes how, as a cadet of Faujdarhat Cadet College (FCC), he had spend his six years from 1959to 1965.
However, in the last half, the writer highlights some points that seemed to be critical of FCC and. for that matter, of all cadet colleges. Though e may have focused on FCC only, I think what he said can be true for all cadet colleges in Bangladesh.
I have some observations regarding the writer's comments. However, I'll not remain focused on FCC only, but will try to offer an analysis from the point of view of all cadet colleges, as there's hardly any difference between FCC and other such colleges.
When Mr. Rahman becomes critical of cadet colleges, he says: "Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that FCC and similar schools have simply failed to live
up to the aspirations and expectations of the nation." He should have elaborated this comment a bit, because it seems a bit harsh on the entire cadet college system.
No one has actually done any survey to assess whether these colleges served their purpose or lived up to the expectations of the nation. If you look at the history, these colleges were established for training the country's youth in such a way that their moral becomes high, they have balanced mental capacity, vision, physical toughness or fitness, leadership quality, as well as the capacity to run the administrative machinery of the country.
Being completely different from all other secondary and higher secondary educational institutions, the objective is to build every cadet in a way so that they can face any situation at any time. The idea to set up cadet colleges came from the erstwhile Pakistani military administration that needed bright people to join the military. In a nutshell, they wanted these colleges to work as factories for supplying bright officers to the army.
Now if one says cadet colleges have
not lived up to their expectation, he or she is gravely mistaken. For a long time, these schools have been supplying extremely bright officers in the army. I don't have any doubt that these colleges still provide very bright cadets for Bangladesh Military Academy.
When the writer says "other dirt-poor institutions may not have produced Rhodes Scholars like FCC but they have produced a longer list of chiefs of staff, professors, VCs, secretaries and acclaimed professionals" I beg to differ with him. Cadet colleges have come a long way since their inception at Faujdarhat in 1958. The number of cadet colleges is presently 12, and they have produced all types of professionals that there are in this country.
One should feel good on seeing how well ex-cadets have done in their professional capacities. Cadets have become big industrialists and employ a huge number of people. They have gone for foreign office, NGOs, government offices as well as the media. The banking sector in Bangladesh is full of ex-cadets; they are even holding leading positions in foreign banks.
If you want examples, the Bangladesh Bank governor, CEO of Citibank N.A., high-ranking officials in Standard Chartered Bank, leading garments businessmen and many former chiefs of army staff are all ex-cadets. There were at least two ex-cadets in last caretaker government's cabinet. If one runs a
survey among all ex-cadets, he should get a very commendable outcome. Well, if you talk about politics, this is the only arena where cadets are absent.
Cadet colleges have produced a large number of academics who are working at universities both at home and around the world. The "unfortunate" aspect that Rahman could've mentioned in his article is surprising number of cadet college-educated academics who are working at foreign universities. I have many friends who are now teaching at foreign universities. What the government can do now is bring back these highly qualified academics to local universities.
The writer says he has "benefitted enormously from my FCC experience." However, a true cost-benefit analysis made from a national perspective will reveal some unpleasant truths, he goes on to say. It's true that cadet colleges spend more money for cadets than the normal educational institutions do for their students. Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics says in fiscal 2005-2006, government expenditure on a student of a cadet college was 13 times the amount spent on a student of a government college and almost 10 times the allocation for a non-government college student.
But does it mean that cadet colleges are wasting money? If you say "yes" then you must also say "the army is more privi-
leged than the civilians." Let's look at this from the other end: the cadets get what students should normally get while students of government colleges are being deprived of the proper contribution from the authorities. When a class-seven student gets to study in a cadet college, s/he has to sit for a highly competitive exam and qualify to study there.
While "it is entirely justified to reexamine current funding policy," it also warrants to assess the budget for cadet colleges. The budget for them has not increased that much since the time when there were only four cadet colleges. National leaders say that they want to improve the quality of education at non-cadet colleges and make it similar to that of cadet colleges. This may sound like rhetoric, but it proves that cadet colleges are examples before others.
If you say that FCC has not yet produced a national cricketer, it's not FCC’s, or for that matter, any cadet college's fault. The government has always neglected in recruiting national players from cadet colleges. This writer has requested Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) several times to visit Inter-Cadet College Sports Meets to see how cadets fare in games and sports. BCB never cared to initiate anything on this. No one, other than cadet college authorities, has any idea how a cadet can excel in games and sports also and can contribute
immensely to national teams. Cadet college authorities, however, don't have access to the authorities that steer games and sports in this country.
If someone talks about ex-cadets' charitable works, he should have a close look at what ex-cadets' associations are doing on that front. Many ex-cadets are involved in poverty reduction projects, HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, healthcare, relief operations after any disaster, etc. Therefore, it wouldn't be fair to say they are absent in this sector. These "distinguished graduates" have not only done well for themselves but have also banded together in many national causes.
No one has ever run any study to evaluate the performance of these colleges. Before slamming any conclusion on the performance of the cadet colleges, one needs to research on what actually the graduates of these colleges have contributed to national causes.
Times have changed since 1958 when the first college was established. One should also feel the need to assess whether these colleges need to be upgraded to match the current and future needs. This is the area that observers and analysts need to focus, but saying that these colleges have not come to aid national interest would be a gross injustice to cadets' contribution since 1958.
Ekram Kabir is a journalist. He graduated from Jhenidah Cadet College in 1984