Total enrolment of children in primary edn by 2011
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid at a discussion yesterday said half of the country's population are illiterate after six decades of the language movement and four decades of independence.
“It is lamentable that half of the population are still illiterate even after 57 years the country fought a glorious language movement,” he added.
Speaking as the as chief guest, Nahid said the government aims at enrolling all the children in the primary education by 2011 and bring the present dropout rate of 50 percent down to zero before completion of class five.
He said this at the discussion on 'International Mother Language Day 2009' organised by Bangladesh National Commission for Unesco and Language Lovers of the World (Bangladesh chapter) in collaboration with the Unesco Dhaka office at NAEM auditorium in the city.
The minister further said that the government resumed the construction of International Mother Language Institute a month ago and it is expected to be functional before next February 21.
Noted litterateur Selina Hossain, president of Language Lovers of the World (Bangladesh chapter), said existence and evolution of Bangla as a language would be impossible without its adequate and appropriate practice.
“It is just regrettable that we have failed to pay due homage to Bangla as a mother tongue,” she said, adding: “A nation that fails to respect its mother language accordingly turns rootless and refugee.”
She strongly condemned the distorted use of Bangla in English accent in several FM radio stations and television channels and elsewhere, saying that this kind of attitude can turn Bangla into an extinct language.
She emphasised the importance of preserving around 50 indigenous languages in the country alongside Bangla.
BNCU Secretary Dr Md Mahmudul Hasan said 2500 languages out of 6000 in the world would be extinct in the next 50 years.
Unesco declared Shaheed Day of February 21 as International Mother Language Day in 1999 in recognition to the supreme sacrifices of the valiant sons of the soil. Since then, the day has been observing across the world every year.
Unesco Dhaka office In-charge Kiichi Oyasu and NAEM Director General Prof Baitun Nahar also spoke at the programme with Addi-tional Secretary to Education Ministry Md Mojammel Haq Khan in the chair.
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