Rebuilding a Nation from the Ground Up: Education, Integrity, and the Missed Priorities of the Past
Rebuilding a Nation from the Ground Up: Education, Integrity, and the Missed Priorities of the Past
CSLBD
Exclusive Interview with Ahmed Al Farouq, Retired Director, Dept. of Environment; Former Consultant, World Bank, ADB, UNDP
Where the Money Went—and Didn’t
The New Government’s Moral Test
The Case for Actionable Intelligence
Conclusion: Time to Unlearn Old Habits
There is a quiet dignity in men who have served the state with little fanfare but profound consequence. Ahmed Al Farouq is one such man—a retired Director from Bangladesh’s Department of Environment and a seasoned consultant to the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and UNDP. His resume spans over five decades, touching nearly every policy epoch since the 1970s. But when asked what regrets linger most, he offers no diplomatic preamble.“We always invested where the profit margin was high and the oversight low,” he says, adjusting his glasses with deliberate pause. “Infrastructure projects—flyovers, buildings, roads—these brought in funding. But they also allowed space for theft. Education, on the other hand, offered no such convenience.” It is perhaps the most damning yet accurate diagnosis of Bangladesh’s development trajectory in the past three decades: the systemic abandonment of human capital in favour of concrete and commissions
Meritocracy Undone
Mr. Farouq’s recollection of his time as an educator at Dhaka College is tinged with both nostalgia and sadness.
“There was a time,” he notes, “when you had to be exceptional to walk through those gates. Dhaka College was a citadel for the brightest minds. But over time, admission standards succumbed to politics. Intelligence was replaced with influence.”
What he describes is not just a decline in academic quality, but a betrayal of the social contract—one in which the state promises its citizens that effort and intellect shall be rewarded. Today, students from politically connected families, regardless of their merit, are often fast-tracked through academic institutions, while the truly gifted are left navigating a broken system with little support.
Where the Money Went—and Didn’t
Mr. Farouq speaks with the candour of someone who has seen the inside of more than one regime—each bearing its own logo, rhetoric, and donors—but all governed by a similar impulse:
“They all found common ground in concrete. Roads, mega-projects, telecom towers. Infrastructure is visible. It gives photo-ops and donor applause. But it also allowed something else—illegal earnings.”
When asked about education sector investments during his consultancy years, he shrugs.
“It wasn’t that we didn’t know what needed fixing. We knew. But there was no political will because you can’t skim profits from a teacher training module. You can’t take a cut from curriculum reform. So it was neglected. Repeatedly.”
The New Government’s Moral Test
With elections now behind us and a new administration assuming office, Mr. Farouq offers not a suggestion but a moral imperative: prioritize education and human capital. Not because it’s politically advantageous, but because it is existential.
- Invest in vocational and skills-based education that reflects the realities of today’s economy
- Restore meritocratic integrity to college admissions
- Build digital infrastructure that complements, not replaces, quality teaching
- Incentivize foreign and private capital to support capital-building, not just capital projects
The Case for Actionable Intelligence :
This is where platforms like ActionBoard.ai enter the conversation. As a policy intelligence engine built on graph reasoning and real-time data mapping, its role could be pivotal:
- Mapping institutional neglect over decades and flagging areas for urgent intervention
- Identifying gaps between policy announcements and implementation
- Prioritizing budget allocations based on long-term national interest—not short-term electoral gains
- Creating dashboards for ministries to monitor policy ROI in real-time
If used properly, ActionBoard could become the very thing Mr. Farouq always wished for: a system that rewards insight over instinct, and strategy over spectacle.
Conclusion: Time to Unlearn Old Habits
As our interview ends, Mr. Farouq offers a final warning, with all the calm clarity of someone who’s seen it all:
“We can build the tallest towers, the fastest trains, and the widest bridges. But if we do not build people—our teachers, our students, our thinkers—then we are building ruins.”
The message is clear. It is not the concrete that holds up a nation, but the collective mind that decides what to build in the first place.
Let this be the government that finally listens.
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