Shafiqul Islam (Shafiq)
Due to the outbreak of coronavirus pandemic, all educational institutions in the country have been closed since March of last year. It was not possible to open it even after announcing the date in several times. However, the government has taken initiative to vaccinate students against corona. Once the vaccination is over, the educational institution will be reopened in a short time, said the Education Minister Dr. Dipu Moni. Even though the educational institutions are closed now, online teaching is on. She said that work is underway to further improve the online education system in the future. The Minister was speaking at a webinar titled ‘Role of Education in Nation Building: Bangabandhu’s Education Philosophy and the Current Education System in Bangladesh’ organized by the Department of Chemistry, Jagannath University (JU) on Tuesday evening (July 28) to mark Mujib Year.
Education minister said the classes have been started on television 12 days after the closure of the educational institution. There is no chance of denying online classes. In addition to teaching in the classroom, importance should also be given to online learning activities. That would have taken us a few more years to get started, because of Corona we have just started.
Dr. Dipu Moni said, initiatives have been taken to make Bangabandhu’s education philosophy up-to-date. It is necessary to work with the university teacher recruitment policy, UGC competency law, education commission. So that no one has any question about transparency in teacher recruitment.
He said the basic principles of education at present are values, ethics and skills. We are now working to improve the quality of education. Therefore, work is being done to provide free books, increase literacy rate, build public and private universities, apply information technology in education and provide technical education & teacher training.
She said technical schools are being set up in every upazila. Efforts are being made to use the degree certificates issued by them in equivalent institutions. Emphasis is being laid on the expansion of ICT skills, language education and science education. Foreign languages have now become tools. Communication skill, collaboration skills, critical thinking skills need to be acquired. In addition to being skilled people, we have to be humane people. It is not necessary to help students just acquire knowledge. They need to be made suitable for the job. That is why teachers need to be more attentive.
The webinar presided by Vice-Chancellor of the University Md. Imdadul Haque and conducted by Professor of Chemistry department Subrata Chandra Roy and Associate Professor Nafis Ahmed. The Former Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Professor Abdul Mannan as the chief Speaker and the Vice Chancellor of the National University Professor Dr. Mashiur Rahman as a special guest and Jagannath University Treasurer Professor Kamaluddin Ahmed was present in webinar.
