As education aspires to create perfect citizenry, the government continued to implement and map out various ambitious projects in the outgoing year to ensure overall development of the country’s education. The country’s education section witnessed a remarkable progress in 2019, playing an encouraging role to enable the people to develop capacity of a lifelong willingness to face new things and modify learned expectations accordingly.
The government proposed Tk 61,118 crore in the budget for the next 2019-2020 fiscal year which was 17 percent up compared to the revised allocation in the outgoing fiscal year.Of the total allocation, Tk 37,077 crore was set aside for the education ministry and another Tk 24,041 crore for the primary and mass education ministry.
With the aim of creating skilled human resource, targets have been set for the overall improvement of education, reducing discrimination in education, achieving quality, excellence, and expansion of education, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said in his budget speech.
2,730 institutions brought under MPO
After a long waiting of nine years, a total of 2,730 non-government educational institutions across the country had been enlisted under the scheme of monthly payment order (MPO). Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on October 23 announcing the new list of educational institutions asked the 2,730 newly-enlisted institutions to uphold all the conditions mentioned in the MPO policy to continue their names under the MPO system.
As per the announcement, a total of 1,651 schools and colleges under the secondary and higher education division had been enlisted under MPO scheme. Of the total, 439 institutions are in the junior secondary slot covering Class 6 to Class 8, while 108 institutions are in the secondary slot from Class 6 to Class 10.
On the other hand, 887 institutions belong to the secondary slot of Class 9 and 10 while 68 institutions are under the higher secondary slot. There are 93 colleges covering eleventh and twelfth classes while 56 are degree colleges. A total of 557 Madrashas have been enlisted under the MPO scheme. Of those, 358 are Dakhil Madrashas, 128 are Alim, 42 are Fazil and the remaining 29 are Kamil Madrashas.
Besides, 522 technical institutions have also been enlisted under the scheme. Of those, 62 are agriculture-based institutions and 48 vocational (independent), 129 are affiliated as vocational institutions, 175 belong to business management (BM) category (independent institutions) and the remaining 108 are BM-affiliated institutions.
The last MPO announcement came in 2010 when a total of 1,624 educational institutions were given such facilities. Primary education’s infrastructural development This year, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education has undertaken two projects for the infrastructures development and establishing child friendly education.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday approved nine projects, including a Tk 1159.21-crore one, to improve the infrastructures of government primary schools in Dhaka city and its adjoining area Purbachal. The Directorate of Primary Education will implement the project of establishing and making primary schools eye-catching ones through improving infrastructures in Dhaka city and Purbachal area by December 2024, said the Planning Minister.
According to the Planning Commission, the main project operations include the construction of 14 new primary schools, including 3 in Uttara and 11 in Purbachal, construction, repair and maintenance of primary school rooms, construction and renovation of boundary walls of the primary schools and necessary land acquisition and land filling.
ECNEC also approved another project to improve selected educational institutions in Haor areas of Netrakona and Sunamganj districts with the estimated cost of Tk 944.80 crore. The main project operations include construction of some 52 student hostels, construction of some 31 multipurpose buildings, one teachers’ dormitory and construction of boundary walls at 31 educational institutions.
Appointment of 18,147 new primary teachers After a long waiting, the government selected a total of 18,147 candidates as primary school teachers this year. On December 24, the primary and mass education ministry published the list of the successful candidates. A total of 2.4 million people applied for the jobs. The 63,601 government primary schools across Bangladesh now have 322,766 teachers.
Reformation of primary school managing committee In a bid to ensure quality education at the primary level, the government has brought some remarkable changes in the process of forming managing committees of government primary schools across the country.
The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education finalized the policy in this regard by defining the responsibilities and duties of the 11-member school managing committee.
As per the finalized policy, the president of the managing committee must have at least a bachelor’s degree and the members must be minimum SSC pass. 35.31 crore free textbooks awaits distribution Before one month of starting new academic year, the government has sent all the free textbooks of Primary and Secondary level students to upazila and district levels.
Now, all are set to distribute free text books among the primary and secondary level students of the country. More than 35.31 crore free textbooks would be distributed among the primary and the secondary level students on January 1 throughout the country for 2020 academic year.
