Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged wealthy people to extend hands in flourishing education in the country.
The prime minister made the remarks while addressing the Kazi Mahboobullah Award distribution function 2015 at the National Theatre at Shilpakala Academy on Saturday afternoon.
"I would like to urge the affluent section (of society) to look at their own villages and extend their helping hands so that our poor and meritorious students could pursue higher education, go abroad and further shine the country's image by obtaining higher degrees and contributing to the overall development," she said.
Sheikh Hasina said the light of education from such initiatives would (also) help create mass awareness against all sorts of superstition, prejudice and religious extremism and militancy.
She said building a poverty-free Bangladesh was an impossible idea discarding education saying "only education could establish a hunger and poverty-free Sonar Bangla as dreamt by Father of the Nation Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman".
Four distinguished personalities were honoured with the Kazi Mahboobullah Award 2015 for their outstanding contribution to their respective fields.
They are Anisul Haque (literature and journalism), Professor Dr Hasina Khan (science), Mashrafe Bin Martuza (sports) and Professor Dr AK Azad Chowdhury (lifetime achievement).
On behalf of Mashrafe, his father Mostafa Martuza received the award as Mashrafe was in Khulna to play a cricket match against the touring Zimbabwe side.
The award carries a cheque for Taka one lakh, a crest, a citation and an "Uttaria".
Begum Zebunnesa and Kazi Mahboobullah Jana Kalyan Trust introduced the award in 1978.
