Bangladesh needs to concentrate on school education and computer science and engineering for uplifting education and skills development as the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) may pose a serious threat to the country’s labour-centric industrial sector, said a recent government study.

The study titled: `Education and Skills for Leveraging Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ was conducted by Leveraging ICT for Growth, Employment and Governance project of the Bangladesh Computer Council under the information and Communication Technology Division in collaboration with the Center for Project Management Institute of Dhaka University.

The study identified 12 strategic areas that need the government’s concentration to tap the potentials of the fourth industrial revolution as well as face its challenges.

The strategic areas are school ICT education, CSE education, diploma programmes in 4IR technology stack, 4IR use cases and best practices, specialised laboratories and incubation facilities for 4IR, 4IR skills and upskills facilities for workers, 4IR technology monitoring and forecasting capacity, SDG linked sector-specific 4IR led transformation, local 4IR innovations and IA/IP, mind-set of stakeholders for leveraging 4IR, technology and innovation management competence and analytical ability, creative thinking and life-long self-learning ability.

The study put forward a set of recommendations to the government, including upgrading of school ICT education with 4IR centric contents and expanded to primary school level and computer science and engineering education and introducing diploma programmes in 4IR Technology stack. The recommendations also stressed on establishing specialised laboratories and incubation facilities for 4IR, developing 4IR skills and up skills facilities for workers, focusing on SDG linked sector-specific 4IR led transformation and developing analytical ability, creative thinking and life-long self-learning ability. 

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