Govt prioritises vocational education: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday said the government has given utmost importance to vocational education as the world needs skilled manpower for the upcoming fourth industrial revolution.

“…we need skilled manpower and that’s why we’ve given utmost importance to vocational education,” she said.

The prime minister said this while inaugurating a three-day national conference of IDEB and international conference on “Skills Readiness for Achieving SDGs and Adopting IR 4.0” at Bangabandhu International Conference Center in the capital.

IDEB and the Colombo Plan Staff College (CPSC) in Manila, the Philippines jointly organised the event in association with the Ministry of Education, Directorate of Technical Education (DTE), and Bangladesh Technical Education Board as co-partners.

Hasina said not only Bangladesh but also the world will need skilled manpower in the coming days. “Those who’ll go abroad will go with technical knowledge, and for that we’ve reformed our education system giving priority to vocational training.”

She also mentioned that the government is giving assistance to private institutions that are providing technical trainings.

The PM said the world is competitive and the government wants to build the manpower of the country in such a way so that they could compete anywhere.

She mentioned that the government has set up 500 polytechnic institute in public and private initiative over the last 11 years while initiatives have been taken to increase the capacity of the public institutes to 1 lakh from 25,000.

Under the Indian Line of Credit to increase the capability of the 49 polytechnic institutes, Hasina said, the government is building one 10-storey building, female hostel, workshop and lab in each polytechnic institute spending Tk 2,600 crore.

​She said the government has taken a programme to establish at least one polytechnic institute in every upazila. Already, 100 polytechnic institutes have been set up creating some 6,400 posts of teachers and employees.

Besides, the PM said, approval has been given to set up additional 329 polytechnic institutes at a cost of Tk 20,525 crore.

The government will also ensure home for every person of the country in the “Mujib Year”.

She urged diploma engineers to remain cautious about the environment and agricultural land while implementing any project.

She said the government wants to ensure all modern amenities in rural areas and is working to that end. She also briefly described various development projects of the government.

Education Minister Dipu Moni; Deputy Minister for Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury; Director General, CPSC and Co-Chairman, Conference Steering Committee Ramhari Lamichhane and IDEB General Secretary M Shamshur Rahman also spoke at the programme, with IDEB and Chairman of the Conference Steering Committee AKMA Hamid in the chair.

In the beginning of the programme, a one-minute silence was observed as a mark of respect to the memories of Bangabandhu, four national leaders, martyrs of the Liberation War and Language Movement.