Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday invited regional collaboration and partnership in fostering higher education.
“From our perspective, regional partnership and cooperation based on SAARC, BIMSTEC and Asia-Pacific region remain crucial in further advancing quality higher education in the region,” he said while speaking at an international symposium on the ‘Significance of Regional Cooperation to Ensure the Quality Assurance in Higher Education 2021’ held virtually.
The foreign minister referred to the speech of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who emphasised building an education system to facilitate the creation of the ‘Sonar Bangla’ – The Golden Bengal - by producing ideal citizens.
“Bangabandhu’s educational thoughts and philosophy seem to be more relevant than before as we intend to become a developed country by 2041. Now, it is our utmost duty to realize his dream through transforming the next generation as talented global citizens by investing in higher education,” he said.
“In this respect, our government stands ready to heartily embrace any regional collaboration, cooperation and partnership in fostering higher education.”
Citing his own experience as a faculty outside Bangladesh, the teacher-turned-diplomat-turned politician foreign minister said his main focus was on (1) effective teaching especially under grade classes and (2) also to help creating an inquisitive mind amongst our students to understand and analyze issues in a holistic way being empowered with relevant knowledge of decision tools and research so that their decisions are not based on a myopic approach but rather on a comprehensive basis.
“In our schools, we always encourage innovativeness, independent thinking and creativity, self discipline, hard work, motivation, competition, self, competitiveness, connectivity more so, as I personally believe, it is innovativeness, creativity, self discipline, hard work, motivation, competition, competitiveness, connectivity, and of course, net working that are engine of growth and excellence both in personal life as well as in national context,” he said.
“Our students’ best guides are our teachers and they try to open up the young mindset of students beyond the box to face emerging challenges and the realities of this complex world.”
He also highlighted the government's steps and said “our government is determined to reap the potential demographic dividend through skills generation and quality education.”
The gross enrollment rate on tertiary education has more than doubled from 8.6% in 2010 to 18.3% in 2019, and young talents are getting more equipped with the latest knowledge, pedagogy and skills.
“I must thank the higher education institutions of Bangladesh as they have been making tremendous efforts to provide quality education and continue to help develop qualified, skilled and tech-savvy human resources in the country in spite of many odds,” he said.
“The Higher Education Quality Enhancement Project (HEQEP) is such a good initiative implemented by the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC). The initiative is jointly financed by the Government of Bangladesh and the World Bank.”
“Now, the government has successfully facilitated in establishing the Institutional Quality Assurance Cell in all public and private universities which works on ensuring quality education at Higher Education Institutes. This initiative is paving the way to effectively utilize the available resources to raise quality and efficiency in higher education in Bangladesh,” he said.
He, however, said we must not forget that we are living in a fast-changing, complex and hyper-connected world.
“In this era of globalization, we cannot make progress in any area by walking alone. We need to work together and cooperate with each other for the interest of reaping mutual benefits and for ensuring sustainable development.”
