PM for improving quality education to match global standard

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina today, Sunday asked all concerned to work together to further improve quality education, matching the global standard, reports BSS.

"The quality of education in the country has improved a lot. We want to keep up with the global standard by improving quality education even further. This is our target and we must work to attain that goal," she said.

The prime minister made the remarks while addressing the national council of National University-affiliated colleges as well as the scholarship distribution ceremony-2023, held at capital’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre (BICC).

Briefly describing her government's initiatives to ensure overall development in the education sector, she said they have taken every possible step to enable generations to cope up with the ever-changing world in the age of science and technology.

"We have taken steps to make the education system multidimensional. We don't want to lag behind. We have to maintain a pace similar to that of the global education as our children are meritorious," she said.

As part of the initiative to make education multidimensional, she said they have established universities in every district, four medical universities, Islamic Arabic University, an aerospace and aviation university, a digital university, medical colleges as well as science and technology universities.

The prime minister said her government wants to turn the young generation into a skilled workforce to meet the ever-growing demand at home and abroad ahead of the fourth industrial revolution.

"We have set up 39 high-tech parks, computer incubation training centres to create scope of getting education on nano-technology, artificial intelligence and more, so that the generations to follow can take a step forward," she said.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina asked the principals and teachers to help the student become worthy citizens of the independent Bangladesh. She also added that today's young generation will be the leaders of Bangladesh tomorrow.

The premier asked the students to pay more attention in studies, be patriotic and be dutiful towards the welfare of the country and its people.

She reiterated her commitment to create a future for the Bangladeshi people as envisioned by the Father of the Nation to give everyone a better life by transforming Bangladesh into a ‘Smart Sonar Bangla’ free of hunger, poverty or any sort of exploitation by 2041.

"It is my word that I will continue working till my last breath to change the fate of the people of Bangladesh," she said. The prime minister at the time handed over scholarship to 10 meritorious but poor students as well as students with special need.

A total of 12,394 students including 11,285 poor students and 1,109 students with special need have received the scholarships worth around Tk 62 million (61,970,000).

At the event, the prime minister also unveiled some development projects including ICT master plan under the National University and put a signature on the list of the development schemes.

Education minister Dipu Moni spoke as the special guest of the programme with the National University vice-chancellor professor Mashiur Rahman in the chair.

The principal of Selim Sonar Bangla College of Cumilla, Abu Salek Mohammad Sourov from and the principal of Rajshahi Government Women College, Jubaida Ayesha Siddiqa spoke on behalf of the all the principals present at the event. Two of the scholarship recipients also expressed their thoughts at the event. Meanwhile, a video documentary on the activities on the National University was screened there.

Commenting on her arrest by the last caretaker government Sheikh Hasina said, “I was first arrested on this day (16 July, 2007), after the emergency situation had been imposed.”

The prime minister said they had offered her the status of a prime minister through a military officer named Amin, who was the most powerful man at that time. But, she told the army that she didn't want the status rather wanted election through which the countrymen could choose their representatives, she added.

"My father was a president of the country and I myself have been a prime minister. I have no greed for assets, house or car rather I want to change the fate of the people. I returned to the country not to build my own fortune, but to change the countrymen’s’ fate,” she told the army man who used to visit her in the jail. She said that she wanted nothing but an election and this forced them to hold an election in 2008.

Sheikh Hasina said the country has progressed much because of the continuation presence of democracy and political stability in the country since Awami League assumed power in 2009. "We're marching Bangladesh forward confronting natural as well as men-made obstacles. Bangladesh has been recognised as a developing country and its journey as the developing one will begin in 2026," she said.

The prime minister said today's Bangladesh is totally different from 14 and a half years back in terms of overall development including education, health, food security, infrastructure and digital connectivity.

The prime minister said, the BNP-Jamaat alliance had announced their last national budget worth Tk 610 billion (61,000 crore) only, while the Awami League government has announced a budget of more than Tk 7,617 billion (7, 61,785 crore) this year.

She said her government has always given topmost priority on education following in the footstep of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as he considered spending on education an investment.

The prime minister said Bangabandhu had given a 21.6 per cent allocation for education in the budget while her government has given an allocation of Tk 81.62 billion (8,162 crore) in the education sector.

She said that Bangabandhu had given jobs to 165,000 (1.65 lakh) teachers in primary schools and made 36,000 schools nationalised across the country soon after the independence. Just like Bangabandhu, she and her government have also given importance to science, technology and vocational education, she added.

She mentioned that her government has established 12 science and technology universities across the country to encourage students to pursue science, as they had found fewer students interested in studying science when they had assumed power back in 1996.

She said the BNP-Jamaat government had stopped the scholarships that her government used to give for taking masters and Ph.D degree abroad. She also said that they (BNP-Jamaat) even cancelled the agreement of purchasing 10,000 laptop of Tulip Brand from the Netherlands government for schools as they assumed Sheikh Rehana to be the owner of the company while Tulip is the national flower of the Netherlands.

Due to the cancellation, Bangladesh had to pay Tk 600 million (60 crore) to the Netherlands government after losing a legal battle, she said.

The prime minister said her government has ensured congenial and peaceful environment in the educational institutions. While during the BNP-Jamaat regime, the educational institutions including the universities only saw the reign of terror.

The prime minister also accused that the military dictator Ziaur Rahman diverted the young generation from the path of education to destruction by giving them money and arms.