National Education Policy
'Biggest success of govt'
Terming National Education Policy the biggest success and achievement of the present government, politicians and educationalists at a seminar yesterday stressed the need for integrating the existing three streams of education and increasing budgetary allocation in this sector.
Ensuring quality education at all levels especially the primary level will be a major task, they said, emphasising on elimination of discrimination in education sector and development of infrastructure of educational institutions.
Awami League (AL) organised the seminar styled 'Three years of grand alliance government: Success and achievement in education sector' at Cirdap auditorium in the city.
Yesterday's seminar was the first one among a series of seminars to be organised by AL highlighting its achievements and successes in the last three years.
Currently, the country has three streams of education -- Bangla medium, English medium and Madrasa.
In the keynote paper, Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad said, “Adopting a national education policy is the biggest achievement of the government.”
The policy, however, will take 9 to 10 years for implementation, he said, adding that budgetary allocation in education sector will have to be increased gradually.
Giving an overview of the government's three years initiative, he said ensuring a corruption-free education administration would pose a big challenge for policy implementation.
“No country in this world except Bangladesh has education system divided into three streams. These three streams consider each other as enemies,” said Prof Syed Manzoorul Islam.
“We have to bring these three streams into one mainstream. Ensuring quality education would be easier once we integrated the streams,” he said.
Describing the government's initiative, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said building a modern Bangladesh with the existing education level is not possible thus they are trying to reorganise the whole education system in light of the education policy.
Primary and Mass Education Minister Afsarul Ameen said the enrolment rate is 99.4 percent and the dropout rate is 27 percent at primary level.
State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Motahar Hossain, AL Advisory Committee member Dr Anupam Sen, Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, Workers Party Chairman Rashed Khan Menon, former chairman of University Grants Commission Prof Nazrul Islam also spoke.
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