Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday accused people involved with the coaching business as conspiring against him because they considered him to be a threat to their business.
Nahid explained they were not happy with him as he was trying to stop their business. “They have a Tk 32,000 crore business and so it is not difficult for them to spend money to hatch a conspiracy against me,” he said.
Nahid came up with such a remark at a time when his ministry is facing widespread criticism due to question paper leakage in some examinations of this year’s Higher Secondary Certificate examination
The Dhaka Education Board had to postpone the English Second Paper examination after allegations of question paper leakage had surfaced.
He was speaking at the launching programme of Global Monitoring Report at Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information & Statistics.
After the programme, while he was asked whether he saw coaching centres behind the question paper leakage, the education minister replied, “Investigations are going on. My remarks might hamper their progress.”
Earlier, Nahid, however, said coaching business persons might have a hand in the question paper leak.
The Global Monitoring Report, which was launched yesterday, found low budgetary allocation in the
way of the progress in the education sector.
It said Bangladesh’s condition was worse than some African countries in terms of public spending.
The report showed that the South Asian country was among 25 countries that dedicate less than 3% of Gross National Product (GNP) to education while Tanzania, an African country, was spending more than 6% of its GNP on education.
