ICT doyen Prof. MA Kader dies

Prof. M. A. Kader was little known to the general people. But after his sudden demise on July 3, his absence proved what a great mind the country has lost. Many sent their letters of condolence and some rushed to his residence to pay their last respect.

Born to a middle class family in old Dhaka on December 31, 1948, Prof. Kader lost his father at a very early age. He had to work along with his two elder brothers and was on his own to bear the expenses for the study of his brothers and sisters and of himself. He did his M.Sc. in soil science from the University of Dhaka.

He started his career as a lecturer of Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Dhaka. In 1995, he became the deputy project director of Renewal and Development Project and also officer-in-charge of Computer Cell in the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. He worked at the Directorate of Education as the deputy director (training) till his death.

Although his major was Soil Science, his interest was on information technology, which led him to learn about 20 application programmes and programming languages, such as BASIC, RPG-II, COBOL, UNIX etc. He also completed a short course on computerised project management sponsored by the World Bank in Washington DC.

His contribution to the ICT field started with the publication of his monthly ICT magazine Computer Jagat in 1991. The cover story of the first issue titled: 'We want computer in the hands of the people' was the first and basic demand to be introduced for a systematic ICT movement in Bangladesh.

Golap Munir is the acting editor of monthly Computer Jagat