Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday reiterated her commitment for making higher education affordable for the common people by establishing at least one university in every district under public or private initiatives, reports UNB.
“To make the higher education affordable for the common people, at least one university in every district under public or private initiatives will be set up,” she said while addressing the Prime Minister Gold Medal Award distribution ceremony at her office in the capital.
The University Grant Commission (UGC) organised the programme with its Chairman Prof Dr Abdul Mannan in the chair. Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid also spoke on the occasion.
The prime minister asked students to play their due role in building poverty and illiteracy-free middle-income ‘Digital Bangladesh’, utilising their talents so that the country could stand rising its head high.
Terming education the backbone of a nation, Sheikh Hasina said her government puts priority to education and makes the highest budgetary allocation for this sector as she believes ‘no nation could be prosperous without education’.
She suggested the Gold Medal recipients to work for the underprivileged section of society saying their ‘medal is not only a medal’ but a responsibility to take forward the nation.
Congratulating medal recipients, the Prime Minister said the power of talent is eternal. “Use the talent and skill to prosper in life and acquire what is good for the nation and individual,” she asked the students.
Hasina said meritorious students need to play an active role in development of the nation as their educational cost is being met with poor taxpayers’ money.
Laying emphasis on making the higher education affordable for the common people, the Prime Minister reiterated her commitment to establish at least one university in every district under public or private initiatives.
Besides, a number of agriculture universities and three specialised universities like Bangabandhu Medical University have been set up by her government.
The government will establish ‘Bangladesh Bhaban’ at Rabindra Bharati University in West Bengal, she added.
Underlining then importance of research, Hasina said her government in its first time in 1996 allocated Tk 12 crore for the purpose and now the amount has been increased by manifold. “As a result, the country has attained self-sufficiency in food.
Sheikh Hasina said her government enacted the Private University Act 2010 to bring a momentum in academic and administrative performance of private universities.
To improve the quality of higher education and meet the international standard, she said the government is implementing a project titled ‘Higher Education Quality Improvement’.
Besides, she said, the University Grants Commission will be transformed into Higher Education Commission and the draft of a law in this regard is at final stage.
Hasina mentioned that the World Bank is going to provide another Tk 1312.26 crore for improving the quality of education.
Earlier, the Prime Minister distributed gold medal and a certificate to each of the 166 recipients of different public universities, including Dhaka, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Jahangirnagar Universities.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also said showered praises on teachers saying that their dignity is above everything as there is no way to compare teachers with others.
“Respected teachers are the conscience of society, the honour of teachers are always above everything...there’s no way to compare them with others...teachers are always teachers,” she said.
Sheikh Hasina said a student can be there in a dignified seat one day, but the position of his teachers are always above him or her.
“Still, my head always bows down whenever I see my teachers because we learned from them,” she said mentioning the names of her two teachers—Prof Anisuzzaman and Prof Rafiqul Islam—who were present at the function.
“I may be the Prime Minister, but the honour of my teacher is far above me, I can at least say his,” she added.
The Prime Minister came up with the remarks at a time when the teachers of different public universities are on agitation over the new pay scale announced by the government.