Although the Directorate of Primary Education had supposedly arranged for an information sharing meeting with journalists, the meeting ultimately turned into a flattery session.
The meeting titled “Progress in Last Five Years on Primary Education and Future Plans” was held at the directorate in the city yesterday.
Unfortunately, very few words were discussed about the problems of the primary education sector and the ways to resolve them.
It seemed that officials had only one goal in mind: how to sugar-coat words to please their bosses. Mostafizur Rahman has been entrusted with responsibility of Primary and Mass Education Ministry.
“As we have a new minister, we need to introduce ourselves to him. That is why we arranged this meeting. This is more like an introductory meeting,” a senior official of Directorate of Primary Education, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune.
The Awami League formed a 49-member cabinet led by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on January 12.
In the immediate past tenure, Awami League leader Afsarul Ameen was in charge of primary and mass education minister.
Before joining the ministry, Mostafizur Rahman was state minister for land.
“After you (Mostafizur Rahman) were made primary and mass education minister, we have discussed about you with our colleagues and everyone said that you are a good person. We are lucky that we have got a minister like you,” said SM Mesbahul Islam, additional director general at DPE.
“The honorable minister said that he knew nothing about this ministry, but the experience he learnt in his life is more than enough to run the ministry,” said DPE’s Director General Shyamal Kanti Ghosh.
In reply to their praises, the minister said, “Please do not hesitate to tell me if I make any mistakes and let me suggest how we can take good initiatives to achieve our goal.”
The minister said education was a core sector that can help the country to become a middle-income country by the government’s targeted time.
