Unnecessary foreign trips by officials ended

Education and Primary and Mass Education Minister Dr A N M Ehsanul Hoque Milon on Saturday said the era of unnecessary overseas trips by government officials has come to an end, stressing that public funds would no longer be spent on non-essential foreign visits.

Speaking as the chief guest at a discussion marking Gono Bishwabidyalay Day in Savar, the minister said there was a time when government officials travelled abroad for activities such as learning to cook khichuri or observing water hyacinth removal, but such practices no longer exist.

He said the government is working to establish an education system where academic programmes are completed within their stipulated duration, allowing students to finish education up to the higher secondary level without session delays.

“Our goal is to ensure students do not lose valuable time and are equipped with the skills needed to become productive members of the workforce,” he said.

The minister said the revised curriculum would introduce “Learning with Happiness”, sports and cultural activities from Class IV, while family values, religious education, moral principles and authentic national history would gradually be incorporated into textbooks.

Although several changes have already been made to existing textbooks, he said a complete curriculum reform would take time.

Highlighting the government’s focus on improving teaching quality, Milon said more teacher training institutes are being established and a new model is being introduced to strengthen teacher training.

On primary scholarships, the minister said the results of the scholarship examination would be published on Sunday.

He noted that students from non-government primary schools have been included in the scholarship scheme for the first time, with 80 percent of scholarships allocated to government school students and 20 percent to those from non-government institutions.

Responding to a question about the recent early publication of admission test results, Milon said the incident was not caused by a technical error.

Instead, he said, an operator had published the results before the official announcement on personal initiative, and disciplinary action had been taken against the individual concerned.

The minister said the government wants to publish all examination results simultaneously through an official process and warned that such irregularities would not be tolerated in the future.

Earlier, a colourful rally involving teachers and students of Gono Bishwabidyalay was held to mark the occasion. The programme was attended by Dhaka-19 MP Dr Dewan Mohammad Salauddin Babu, Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Abul Hossain and others.