Government to provide free uniforms to all primary school students: State Minister

State Minister for the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education Bobby Hajjaj said that free uniforms will be provided to all primary school students in the country. He said that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has instructed to provide free uniforms to primary school students.
We have started working towards that goal. Students will be provided with free uniforms once a year. We believe that we will be able to provide free uniforms to all primary schools in the country in phases during the tenure of the current government.
The State Minister said this while speaking as the chief guest at the policy dialogue titled ‘Primary Education Reforms: Strategic Directions’ organized by the BRAC Education Program of the non-governmental development organization BRAC at the Mohakhali BRAC Center in the capital today (April 13).
This policy dialogue was organized with the aim of improving the quality of primary education in the country and incorporating field-level experiences and data-based recommendations in policy-making in the education reform program. In his speech as the chief guest, the State Minister said, ‘Midday meals have already been introduced in several primary schools. I hope to be able to provide mid-day meals in all primary schools by next year.’
He said, ‘We need to fix the three ‘Cs’ for the development of the education sector: curriculum, classroom, consistency. We need to improve the infrastructure and environment of our classrooms. There are many shortcomings in our primary education curriculum. I have already started on-site visits to schools. After visiting a few schools and asking students, especially those in grades four and five, to read from books, I found that reading is quite difficult for them. In fact, we need to see what exactly they are reading? Is the text and language suitable for them? Can they read fluently? I think the subjects are quite difficult for them. The curriculum needs to be reviewed and updated.’
Regarding the formulation of a modern curriculum, the State Minister said, ‘We want sports-based and story-based education in primary and pre-primary. We need to create a curriculum that will make students interested in reading. However, we will not impose the curriculum tomorrow by creating a sports-based and story-based education curriculum today. We will announce the curriculum updates, implement it experimentally, provide training and then update the curriculum.’
At this time, he also said, ‘We are emphasizing on extra-curricular activities of students. We are working jointly with the Sports Ministry to include 6-7 sports in every school. Also, we are working with the Culture Ministry to teach dance, singing and acting.’
At this time, he emphasized on providing effective training to teachers and said, ‘PTI provides 10-month training to primary teachers. The content of this training is quite good, I have seen and read it. But when I go to school, I do not see any application of this training.’ The training of teachers will be made more effective.’
Director General of the Directorate of Primary Education Abu Noor Md. Shamsuzzaman and Director General (Additional Charge) of the Private Education Bureau Debabrata Chakraborty were present as special guests in the dialogue. Also present was Asif Saleh, Executive Director of non-governmental development organization BRAC.