Minimum standard of edn a must for MPO: Farruk

Education Minister Dr. Osman Farruk yesterday said Monthly Pay Order (MPO) and government grants to educational institutions must not be a "permanent settlement".

"The educational institutions that will fail to register a minimum performance should not have the right to claim government grants and facilities," he said while inaugurating as chief guest the national-level programme of the 'National Education Week-2003'.

Held at the Osmani Memorial Hall under the auspices of the education ministry, the function was also addressed by State Minister for Education ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon and Deputy Minister Mohammad Abdus Salam Pinto as special guests.

Presided over by Education Secretary Mohammad Shahidul Alam, the inaugural function was also addressed, among others, by Director General of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Directorate Abdur Rashid and Joint Secretary of the ministry Sheikh AK Motahar Hossain.

Dr. Osman Farruk said the education administration had become weak and full of irregularities and the managing committees almost "non-functioning" because of "personal" and "coterie" interests.

"Our government does not believe in politicisation of school and college managing committees," he said adding that to improve the prevailing situation, both responsibility and accountability of the governing bodies had to be enhanced.

The education minister said the responsibility to improve the standard of education must be carried out jointly by its stakeholders -- teachers, students, guardians, civil society members and the government.

The education minister said the curriculum as well as syllabus of the text books must be "life-oriented" and realistic so that real nation-building architects come out from the country's 107,000 educational institutions.

The main work to attain this goal has to be carried out by 750,000 teachers employed in these institutions, he said.

Turning to the quality education, the minister said "We do not want to engage police to remove note books from the market, nor do we want to close down the private coaching centres right now."

"We have to go to the root of the problem and ask ourselves why students have become dependent on note books and coaching centres," he said, adding that teachers must perform their sacred jobs of imparting education and wisdom to their pupils in the class room for the full period of their contract hours before heading for coaching centres.

"We have to recast our education system so that the new generation can be injected with human and moral values and are well-educated," he said.

He stressed the need for introducing an education system that is capable of achieving the basic objectives of education, like enlightening the learners, making them wise, knowledgeable and good citizens and capable of innovating new skills and strategies for nation-building purposes.

Making a departure from his written speech, the education minister raised some important issues like adopting unfair means in examinations, misuse of funds and facilities, sufferings of the teachers in the corridors of education directorate and national university to get their problems addressed.

At the same time, the minister hinted at some important measures his ministry is going to take to streamline this very important sector of national life. He said the education directorate and the national university would be further decentralised so that the teachers and others concerned could get their services without undergoing much hazard and inconvenience.

The inaugural session was followed by National Education Conference entitled "Education for Attaining Self-reliance".