BNP secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Friday demanded the government reopen all the educational institutions immediately with rigid health protocols in place.
“The damage done to education during this corona time is colossal. The problems that have arisen in the field of education are also affecting our economy, politics and potentials,” he said during a virtual discussion.
The BNP leader said, “So, it’s necessary to immediately form a national commission with educationalists, guardians and students. The educational institutions need to be reopened immediately with proper planning in accordance with the health safety rules.”
He said the academic activities in educational institutions can be resumed by introducing a shifting system and formulating different curricula.
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BNP arranged the virtual discussion meeting on the disrupted education system during Covid-19 and the future of the nation. Party’s education affairs secretary and Dhaka University teacher Prof ABM Obaidul Islam presented the keynote paper at the programme.
Fakhrul said the current government is very reluctant about people and their problems since it is not elected by them. “In fact, this is a fraudulent government. They’re deceiving people over every issue to divert their attention to a different direction from the original problems.”
He also said the government has been lying since the beginning of the Covid problem to hide the real situation as it has no commitment and accountability to people.
The BNP leader said many people, including the teachers of private educational institutions, have become unemployed since the Corona outbreak. “But the government has completely neglected them. Several lakh teachers who used to run private educational institutions like kindergartens, including in the villages, lost their jobs as those have been shut down.”
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BNP standing committee member Dr Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain said the country’s education system has become a victim of local and international plots. “Our education sector has suffered a serious setback due to the lack of sincerity of the government. We’ve to bear this loss for the next 20 years.”
He said there is no justified reason to keep the educational institutions shut when factories and shops and markets are open.
BNP standing committee members Mirza Abbas, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, Dr Abul Moyeen Khan, Nazrul Islam Khan, Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, Selima Rahman and Iqbal Hasan Mahmud Tuku, among others, spoke at the programme.