Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday told Parliament that the government will take a scheme soon to bring educational institutions under the Monthly Pay Order (MPO) following a recently formulated policy.
“The Non-government Educational Institutions’ (School and College) Manpower Organogram and MPO Policy, 2018′ has been issued with a view to enlisting the remaining non-government educational institutions under the MPO on the basis of a specific policy. A scheme will be taken soon over the MPO enlistment issue following the policy,” she said during the question-answer session in the House. The Prime Minister came up with the disclosure replying to a question from Jatiya Party MP Fakhrul Imam (Mymensingh-8).
Sheikh Hasina said two committees have already been formed to receive and manage online applications as well as scrutinise the institutions in line with the rules to this end.
Assuming power, the Awami League government has brought some 1,624 non-government institutions under the MPO scheme for improving the quality of education, she said.
Fakhrul Imam, in his question, wanted to know what measures the government has taken so far for the development of education after assuming power.
In reply, the Prime Minister came up with a detailed answer focusing on the government measures taken for the development of the pre-primary, primary, secondary, technical and vocational, madrasah and higher education.
She said the present government has brought a total of 137,546 teachers and staff of non-government secondary schools, colleges and madrashas under the MPO scheme since 2009.
Now, there is no village in the country without having any primary school, she said, adding that the government has set up 1,125 primary schools in villages which had no any primary school.
Sheikh Hasina said the Awami League government has so far appointed a total of 165,225 assistant teachers and 4,400 headmasters to primary schools since 2009. “A process is on to recruit 10,000 more assistant teachers.”
She said the net enrolment rate (NER) in the primary education has reached 97.97 percent in 2018, which was 90.9 percent in 2006.
The Prime Minister said the dropout rate at the primary level came down to 18.08 percent in 2018 from 50.5 percent in 2006.
Noting that mothers were motivated to give their children homemade food in tiffin boxes, she said 96.71 percent students now go to schools with tiffin boxes provided by their mothers.
Hasina said the ‘Midday Meal’ programme is now running in 64,430 schools out of 65,269.
Focusing on the higher education, she said the government established eight public universities and gave permission to set up 52 private universities in the country since 2009 to improve higher education.
Besides, work continues to establish seven more universities on government’s initiatives, the Prime Minister said.
The government enacted the Accreditation Council Act-2017 under the Private University Act, 2010 to improve the quality of the country’s higher education, she said, adding that Cross Boarder Higher Education (CBHE) Rules have also been formulated.
Creative Talent Search Policy has been framed to find out meritorious students from the country’s grassroots level.
