Environmental law curriculum development seminar held at DU
On 3 September 2022, a seminar on environmental law curriculum development was held at the Department of Law, University of Dhaka with a view to sharing thoughts on best practices in environmental law teaching in Bangladesh and to discussing the possibility of forming a teachers-network in this field.
This seminar was a follow-up discussion to the "Training-the-Teachers" Program held in Kathmandu, Nepal, from 23-26 November 2018, organised by the IUCN Academy with the support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).
The seminar started with the welcome speech of its chief guest, Prof. Dr. Sanjeevi Shanthakumar, Director, Gujarat National Law University and Governing Board Member of IUCN Academy of Environmental Law. Dr. Shanthakumar began with a comparison of OBE (Objective Based Education) prevalent in Bangladesh and India with CBE (Competency Based Education) popular in the European education system. Preferring the CBE system, he emphasised on building efficiency in students as law graduates and changing the students' attitude towards environment, particularly towards sustainable use of natural resources. In conclusion, he summarised the steps to prepare an effective environmental law curriculum, from enlisting the competencies expected to be built via choosing topics necessary for those competencies by identifying methodologies for teaching those topics.
The panel discussants of the seminar were: Mr. Mohammad Golam Sarwar, Assistant Professor, Department of Law, University or Dhaka; Ms. Afroza Bilkis, Senior Lecturer, Department of Law, Independent University Bangladesh (IUB); and Ms. Nazifa Muniyat Quader, Lecturer, Department of Law, Canadian University of Bangladesh (CUB). They discussed their course content and teaching methodologies.
The participants of the seminar were faculty members from different universities of Bangladesh including: Mr. Md. Abu Bakar Siddiq, Assistant Professor, Cumilla University; Dr. Nabaat Tasnima Mahbub, Assistant Professor, East West University (EWU); Ms. Nadia Rahaman, Lecturer, East West University (EWU); Mr. Md. Sunzad Sheikh, Assistant Professor, Canadian University of Bangladesh (CUB); Imtiaz Ahmed Sajal, Lecturer, Bangladesh Army International University of Science and Technology (BAIUST); Mr. Washik Md. Istiaq Ezaz, Senior Lecturer, Independent University Bangladesh (IUB); Mr. Toki Ashraf, Lecturer, State University of Bangladesh (SUB); Mr. Md. Asadullahil Galib, Lecturer, Dhaka International University (DIU). The seminar was hosted by Ms. Cynthia Karim, Lecturer, State University of Bangladesh (SUB).
The seminar was chaired by Dr. Asif Nazrul, Chairman and Professor, Department of Law, University of Dhaka. Mr. Nazrul cordially thanked everyone present for participating in the seminar. Finally, Mr. Nazrul proposed to form a network of environmental law teachers in the universities of Bangladesh. The proposal was accepted by everyone.
Event report by Mr. Toki Ashraf and Mr. Md. Asadullahil Galib, both serving as Lecturer in Law at the State University of Bangladesh (SUB) and the Dhaka International University (DIU) respectively.
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