UNB, Dhaka :
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday 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.
She said this while addressing the Prime Minister Gold Medal Award distribution ceremony at her office.
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. 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.
