Prof Arefin was highlighting on the role of mass media in the socio-economic and the educational development of a developing country.
His message was that both the print and broadcast media can play a vital role in enhancing education in a developing country. It can shape and create public opinion towards on related issues by applying its strength and bring changes among individual. I fully agree with him.
We in Bangladesh are now in a state of media expansion. A large number of people here depend on newspapers and broadcast media for entertainment. But media also has an important educational role: Students from rural areas can take lesson from watching certain television programmes. They also can learn a lot of things listening to radio. And almost every national daily, both Bangla and English, has its education page; they published both institutional and general knowledge based reports for students.
Education is much more than going to schools and colleges, its purpose is to create awareness among people. Mass media is providing this kind of knowledge outside of the schoolroom. Thus it is playing a vital role in creating mass awareness both in rural and urban areas in our country.
Print media in our country is very powerful. People, especially, the students read newspapers for learning different aspects about life, art, culture and science of both home and abroad.
Almost every newspaper has its own education page. In the page, they published educational articles written by teachers, trainers, students, and experts. It also publishes different difficult explanations, questions and answers of secondary and higher secondary levels.
Some English dailies publish the techniques of teaching English language and grammar, while some scientific magazines scientific explanations and new inventions. Some dailies publish 'weekly magazines', which focuses mainly on the higher education. In addition, they publish the prospectus of different educational institutions.