Call to include trafficking issues in primary school curriculum

Primary and Mass Education Minister Afsarul Amin speaks at a view exchange meeting at Hotel Sonargaon in the city yesterday.Photo: STAR

Development activists working in education sector yesterday stressed the need for including trafficking issues in the primary school curriculum to stop the increasing child trafficking in the country.
They also recommended that trafficking issues be included in the curriculum which will also make teachers, guardians as well as other stakeholders aware of the issues.
They said this at a view exchange meeting titled 'Inclusion of trafficking issues in the primary school curriculum' organised by International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and Campaign for Popular Education (Campe) at a city hotel where representatives from different NGOs were present.
Primary and Mass Education Minister Afsarul Amin said if the trafficking issue is included in the primary school curriculum, it might make children aware of the issue from their early age, but it might also create panic among them.
“But we should think of the academic burden on children, who are always overloaded at the schools, and such overload might cause to increase the dropout rate.”
Child trafficking is not only a problem in the country, it is also a problem in neighbouring India, Nepal and Pakistan, said the minister, adding that united effort is a must to stop the menace.
Abu Alam Md Shahid Khan, secretary in-charge of the primary and mass education ministry, said a strong network exists within the country, which is doing brisk business on human trafficking.
“So, we all should work together to stop any kind of human trafficking, not only give burden to the child books, that already overburdened with so many issues,” said the secretary in charge.
Former adviser Rasheda K Chowdhury, also executive director of Campe, said the trafficking issue could be included in the primary school curriculum by making it a child-friendly topic.
Despite the school curriculum, the trafficking issues should also be addressed through mass media, including stage dramas, theatres, folk songs, community radios as well as all mainstream media, she added.
Rasheda suggested a massive awareness programme through some other ways, saying: “We hear the cassette of Delwar Hossain Sayedee in the long-route busses, so why not the message about trafficking or other awareness issues.”
Rabab Fatima, regional representative of IOM, Zakia K Hassan, national programme officer and team leader of Prevention and Protection of Victims of Human Trafficking in Bangladesh, and Dr Monjur Ahmed, senior adviser to Education and Research Institute of Brac, also spoke at the meeting.