Not everything needs enactment of new law

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday in parliament said there is no need to enact a new law to stop evening courses at public universities.

"The president has already talked about evening courses, and the government is taking appropriate measures in this regard. Not everything needs enactment of a new law. The university authorities and the UGC can take steps regarding this," she said in reply to a query from Jatiya Party MP Mujibul Haque.

Sheikh Hasina said there were once session jams in public universities, and for that reason the system of two shifts or evening courses were introduced.

She said it was found that many teachers of public universities showed more sincerity to take classes in private universities than in their own universities. "As a result, problems arose in their respective educational institutions," she said.

In reply to a supplementary question from BNP MP Harunur Rashid, the premier criticised the mentality that only students of English medium schools are brilliant.

Harun said a couple of years back, the High Court gave a directive to reserve five percent seats in Buet and other public universities for English medium students. He also mentioned that the directive was yet to be followed at public universities.

"It seems from the question of the lawmaker that only those who study in English medium [schools] are brilliant... We came from Bangla medium; maybe we are not brilliant, but that does not mean that we are the worst," Sheikh Hasina said.

The PM questioned why seats should be reserved for English medium students. "I do not see any logic in that," she said.

In reply to a query from reserved seat lawmaker Aroma Dutta, the premier informed the House that around 4.67 lakh Bangladeshi workers returned from different countries on various grounds taking out pass, in the last 10 years.

Mentioning that the government formed "Female Workers Protection Cell" in December last year, she said not a single female worker became subjected to harassment in the last one month due to the effectiveness of scrutiny of female workers, following formation of the protection cell.

"A total of 7,365 female workers went to different countries for employment in December 2019, under the direct supervision of the cell," she said.