PM: Promote creativity, merit in education field

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday formally inaugurated textbook distribution programme for the academic year 2017 as the National Textbook Festival is set to be celebrated across Bangladesh today.
The premier opened the textbook distribution programme by handing over textbooks of primary and secondary levels to students at a function in Dhaka.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid and Primary and Mass Education Minister Md Mustafizur Rahman spoke at the function conducted by secretary of the Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Division Sohrab Hossain.
PM’s adviser HT Imam and principal secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury, PMO secretary Surayia Begum, PM’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim and other secretaries and senior officials were present.
Taking a swipe at those who have been questioning the standards of education, the prime minister asked the critics to fix the standards first.
“Those who are raising questions about the quality and standard of the education in the country, I’ll tell them everything cannot be fixed overnight. We don’t get the scale of standard of the education from them,” she said.
She also asked the critics to give some voluntary services to find out the areas where the standard of the education is not good. “You can go there, give some lessons to the students, it’ll be of a great help to us,” she said.
Hasina also said it is not a good gesture just saying anything as one needs to show the process of implementation. “I think they should help us to that extent.”
Noting that the government has given utmost importance to the education sector, the prime minister said that numerous programmes have been taken to encourage merit and creativity.
She said education is a basic human right of people, and that education is the only tool for building a poverty-free Bangladesh.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid will inaugurate the central programme of the National Textbook Festival-2017 at Azimpur Government Girls School and College in Dhaka
today.
Prof Narayan Chandra Saha, chairman, National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), earlier told newsmen that the government will distribute 362.18mn textbooks free of cost among the primary and secondary level students in academic year 2017.
“The free textbooks will be distributed among 426,35,929 pre-primary, primary, secondary, ibtedayi, dakhil, dakhil vocational, SSC vocational, small anthropological group and visually challenged students across the country,” he said.
The NCTB chairman said for the first time arrangements have been made for supplying guidelines to teachers for resolving complications over the creative question paper system.
He said 6,001,024 guide books have been prepared for primary teachers while 4,666,664 books for secondary teachers.
Education ministry officials said 333,762,772 textbooks were distributed among 4,4416,728 students of pre-primary, primary, ebtedayee, secondary, dakhil and technical students for the 2016 academic year.
“An amount of 56.58bn taka has been spent for textbooks distribution among students of pre-primary, primary, ebtedayee, secondary, dakhil and technical students in the eight years,” the NCTB chairman said.