The World Bank has tied up with the government and the private sector to launch a mega quiz competition for the students of Bangladesh to make them aware of the environment and climate change in an innovative way.
Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Minister Mustafa Jabbar launched the nationwide competition styled “Green Earth Quest” at a ceremony on Monday at the Hotel Intercontinental.
Students of secondary, higher secondary, and university levels can register from Tuesday through the website www.greenearthquest.org for the competition which will end in February in Dhaka after district and divisional rounds. District rounds will be held online, an initiative that drew appreciation from Minister Mustafa Jabbar.
"I want to see education paperless. Future education will be paperless," the minister said, as paper is made of bamboo - a green, sustainable material that may help communities become more resilient to climate change, achieve carbon neutrality, and alleviate housing scarcity.
He said his ministry had already made apps for primary education.
The Ethics Advance Technology Ltd (EATL), which will implement the competition with the support of the government, said the total prize money for the entire event would be Tk50,50,000 with the champions to be given Tk300,000 each.
At least 10 million people including 1 million students will come to know the messages of climate change and environmental degradation through the competition.
Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to climate change, though the country is not a significant contributor to the global greenhouse gasses emission.
According to the World Bank, average tropical cyclones cost Bangladesh about $1 billion annually. By 2050, a third of agricultural GDP could be lost and 13 million people could become internal climate migrants. In case of a severe flooding, GDP could fall by as much as 9%.
This calls for the proper environmental measures, along with economic growth.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina moved forward to initiate the climate change narrative from resilience to prosperity, and launched the “Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan”, setting an example for other vulnerable countries to adopt a similar plan.
The World Bank runs turning the green growth into green jobs project in Bangladesh.
Senior Operations Officer World Bank Dr Mokhlesur Rahman said with this quiz competition they want to make youths aware of the "green behavior".
"We can recycle and reuse many things. We have to reduce waste," he said, adding that this quiz is a "new initiative" and with that the World Bank wants to open a new window for skills development.
EATL Managing Director MA Mubin Khan said he was happy to be part of such an initiative.
"It's not just to show off. We want to instill green skills, a green world, and green technology concepts into the brains of our students. We hope to continue this competition for the next three to five years," he said.
Chief coordinator of the National Implementation Committee for the Celebration of Mujib Borsho Kamal Abdul Naser Choudhury, Member of the University Grants Commission Prof Muhammad Alamgir, former secretary Md Sirazul Islam and Rector of Bangladesh Civil Service Academy Dr Md Omar Faruk, were present, among others, at the event.
