Education must for empowerment
Hasina says at Ankara University
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said education was vital to empower people for achieving an environment of justice, peace, democracy and development.
“I strongly believe that to empower people and to achieve an environment of justice, peace, democracy and development, education is vital”, she said in her speech on "People's Empowerment" at Ankara University, Turkey.
Hasina pointed out that only education and enlightenment could give people the end means to eliminate poverty, hunger, disparity, and deprivation, bring the excluded into the mainstream of the society, accelerate human resources development, and root out terrorism.
“I believe that these six issues are also interdependent and have to be addressed in a holistic way”, she said.
“In the last three years of our government, we have succeeded in reducing poverty by 10 percent. Our aim is to lift most of our poor people out of poverty within the UN-set Millennium Development Goals time frame of 2015”.
“Unfortunately”, she said, “Much of our efforts in this regard are being hindered due to diversion of our limited resources to meet climate change challenges.”
Gender equality in education has been achieved at the secondary level, and the government has a plan to provide free tuition to girls until graduation, she said.
“For enticing girls to education, three polytechnic institutes, a Women and Gender Studies Department at Dhaka University, and an International University for Women, have been established”.
Hasina said education was also important to strengthen secularism, one of the four founding pillars of Bangladesh and its constitution.
Although the majority people follow the Islamic faith, there are a good percentage of followers of other religions, and all have been living together in harmony since independence, she said.
Earlier, on her arrival at the university, Rector of Ankara University Prof Dr Cemal Taluð welcomed the prime minister. A good number of senate members, faculty and students of the university listened to the prime minister's speech.
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