Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus urged the government to reform the country's education system to encourage young people to pursue entrepreneurship and create jobs for others, instead of seeking job for themselves.
Addressing the inauguration of the fifth Social Business Day at a hotel in the capital yesterday, he said: “The entire education system is wrong. It limits people's objectives and allows them to use only a fraction of their capacity,” he said. “This system requires huge transformation.”
He asked: “What kind of a society do we belong to? What kind of economic system do we have, keeping the potential of young people limited and making the world obsolete and unusable?
“Young people feel very frustrated in the present system and it is human problem,” he said.
Hosted by the Yunus Centre, the event was participated by more than 275 delegates from 31 countries, in addition to local delegates from different sections of the society.
Kerry Kennedy, president of Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights, was the keynote speaker at the event. She said the challenge of democracy is when the elections are anything but free and fair.
On social business, she said it is not for material gain for self, but living for others which is so much meaningful.
Ambassadors of the US, Egypt, South Korea and Australia in Dhaka also spoke at the programme.
Representatives from Albania, Haiti, Nepal, Columbia and Bangladesh presented six social business projects and experts gave their opinion about the prospect and limitations of those projects.
Sophie Eisenmann, co-founder of Yunus Social Business, presented a social business idea dedicated to provide clean and cost-efficient energy sources such as cooking stoves and solar lamps in Haiti.
Birkha Nath Yogi of Nepal presented a project to provide porridge, bread and cookies with added nutrients at a fair market price in his country.
Bangladeshi engineer Sarkar Ardhendu presented a project to provide biomass power solutions and fly ash bricks in rural areas.
Leonore Kleinkauf presented a project named Seniors House to provide quality service to elderly people at an affordable cost.
Eriab Kiiza of Uganda presented a project on production and sale of charcoal briquettes and fuel-efficient cooking stoves.
New entrepreneur Mohammad Yeasin, a college student from Chandpur district, presented a demonstration on making commercial production of carrom boards, an indoor game popular in Bangladesh.