Primary students to receive books by February: Adviser

Primary school students will receive all their books by February, said Professor Dr. Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar, Adviser to the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.

On Monday (February 17) morning, he was present as the chief guest at a two-day reading conference titled ‘Joint and Integrated Efforts to Develop Reading Skills and Reading Habits’ jointly organized by the Department of Primary Education and Room to Read Bangladesh at Dream Square Resort in Sreepur Upazila of Gazipur. He made these remarks in response to various questions from journalists after the inauguration of the program.

He said, as of yesterday (Sunday), the National Curriculum and Textbook Board reported that more than 85 percent of the books up to class three have gone to the field. And in the case of books for classes 4 and 5, we were lagging behind. 84 percent of those books have gone to the field. I received the report yesterday. I hope that students will receive all their primary books by February.

On improving the quality of primary education, he said, in our country, it is a matter of personal decision where a person will educate his child. So if someone thinks that his child will get good education by going to kindergarten, that is his business. But we have two responsibilities. First, we are trying to improve the quality of primary education and in places where primary schools are good, people flock to get admission in primary schools. Second, we will see that the kindergartens that are running follow our national curriculum. Because we give them primary school books for free. So that they follow them. It is our responsibility to see that education is done properly in government and private schools.

At the event, Director General of the Department of Primary Education Dr. Md. The reading conference, chaired by Abdul Hakim, was also addressed by Additional Director General (PEDP-4) of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education Mohammad Atiqur Rahman, Director of the National Academy of Primary Education (NEP) Zia Ahmed Sumon, Director of the Institute of Education and Research of Dhaka University Hosne Ara Begum, Director of the Directorate of Primary Education Dr. Mohammad Ataul Gani, Country Director of Room to Read Bangladesh Rakhi Sarkar, among others.