Pvt-public efforts can improve quality of edn

Analysts at a discussion yesterday stressed the need for coordination between public and private sectors to ensure quality education for all in the country by 2015.
Policy Research Centre Bangladesh (PRC.bd), a civil society think tank, and the Royal Institute of Management (RIM), a newly founded higher educational institution, jointly organised the programme in the Cirdap auditorium to find whether Bangladesh will be achieving one of the goals of the Dakar declaration, which is to improve the quality of education.
The speakers observed that Bangladesh was not on the track to achieving the goal by the stipulated year 2015, but it was doing fine towards reaching the five other goals.
The analysts expressed satisfaction at the literacy rate, which increased 6 percentage points in the last two years, but argued that there was rarely any qualitative change. They also pointed out the exorbitant educational cost at the private intuitions, which was limiting the access of poor students.
The declaration was adopted in Dakar, Senegal in 2000 where participants from different countries across the globe agreed on the Dakar Framework for Action, which affirmed their commitments to achieving education for all by 2015.
They hoped that coordinated public-private efforts could help achieve all the goals of the Dakar declaration, which also includes expansion of early childhood care and education and providing free and compulsory primary education for all.
The roundtable was preceded by the launching of the Royal Institute of Management (RIM), which offers BBA and CSE programmes.  The RIM is located in the capital's Mirpur 10.
Dr SA Samad, executive chairman of Bangladesh Board of Investment (BOI); Dr Manzoor Ahmed, a senior adviser at Brac University; and Prof Akbaruddin Ahmad, chairman of PRC.bd, also spoke on the occasion.