Treasury bench members yesterday described the proposed national budget for the fiscal year 2016-17 as an elevator of further development, which is time-befitting, pragmatic, and a guideline of progress to ensure quality living standard in the country, reports BSS. Finance Minister AMA Muhith on June 2 rolled out a Taka 340,605 crore national budget for 2016-2017 fiscal setting the GDP growth target at 7.2 percent and delineating a set of programmes to transform the country into a role model of modern and welfare state by 2041.
Taking part in the discussion, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said, the government is working relentlessly to ensure education for all and establish gender equality in the society emphasizing on quality education.
He expressed his satisfaction over successfully handing over of textbooks to millions of students across Bangladesh at the beginning of the year despite the volatile political situation and the Opposition’s agitations.
This year the ministry has distributed more than 33.37 crore textbooks among four crore students, he said adding, the government will distributes Braille books for visual impaired students and books will be also distributed among five ethnic groups in their own languages. The government is going to establish an autistic academy to give proper education to autistic children aiming to develop them as human resources, he said.
This year the government has distributed Taka 1900 crore as stipend for meritorious and deprived students.
“The National Education Policy was introduced in 2010 to lay the foundation of that goal, and the country has already begun to get success”, he said. Emphasizing the need for quality teachers for quality education, Nahid said the government has trained about 10 lakh teachers in quality teaching and evaluation methods.
The quality of higher education would have to be improved further and education should be made time befitting with the proper use of Information Communication Technology (ICT), he said adding, the government will build a digital Bangladesh by enlightening the new generation with modern education.
Bangladesh would become a middle-income country even before 2021 because of the swift expansion and application of ICT, he said adding, now the people in the remotest corners have access to internet.
The government has been working to modernize the madrasa education and introduced similar pay scale of madrasa teachers, same as the teachers of general education, to improve the quality education in madrasa.
The government is also updating technical training to ensure Bangladesh’s competitiveness in the global market and reduce unemployment problem by improving the quality of vocational educational and training. The government has taken initiative to establish Islami Arabic University in the country and honors course were started in 31 in madrasas and permanent building were constructed in 2000 madrasas, he said.
The power plants in Bangladesh now can produce14,500 megawatts of electricity, he said adding electricity is the major source of power for most of the country’s economic activities. Begum Shirin Akhter of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal called for more budgetary allocation on Information Ministry, Labour and Employment Ministry and Agriculture Ministry. He also urged the mass people to work jointly in this regard.
Other lawmakers demanded arrest of Tarique Zia by bringing him back to the country as he in London has been hatching a conspiracy to abduct Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Ahmed Wazed Joy, and sending death treat to granddaughter of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and MP of British Parliament Tulip Siddiq.
They urged the Finance Minister to withdraw the value added tax (VAT) on meditation services as it helped people to overcome mental and physical stress naturally.
Opposition bench member ABM Ruhul Amin Howlader said, the government has done tremendous development works across the country under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the 13th among 100 top leading global thinkers.
The lawmakers said if all concerned put in their best efforts from their respective positions, it would not be tough to implement the planned development programmes and the new budget.