Invest in education, not arms, PM urges world

FE Team | Published: September 26, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Sheikh Hasina at the meeting of \'Global Education First Initiative\' (GEFI) in New York Wednesday

New York, Sept 25 (Agencies): Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged the world to invest in education instead of spending billions on developing new weapons.
"We must divert billions we spend for creating war machines and violence to educating our progeny for the world we want," she said at a high-level meeting of the 'Global Education First Initiative' (GEFI) at the United Nations headquarters Wednesday.
"Let us all invest in quality education for a culture of peace and non-violence."
The UN secretary-general had launched the five-year GEFI in September 2012 to accelerate progress towards the Education for All goal and the education-related Millennium Development Goals.
In this connection, the Prime Minister referred to the atrocities in Gaza by Israeli forces, and urged the world leaders to raise their voice against it. "The situation in Gaza is not acceptable, all should raise their voice 'what is happening in Gaza," she said.
Turning to education in Bangladesh, Hasina said the MDGs helped the country to be champion in ensuring access to education and, gender parity. "In the post-2015 era, our priority must be 'quality education."
Mentioning that Bangladesh will have more than 120 million young and active workforce by 2031, the Prime Minister said, "My government is determined to unlock their talents and transform them into skilled human capital. Bangladesh's National Education Policy 2010 has laid foundations to that end.
In a low-income-country, she said, quality education must ensure access to free textbooks and contemporary curricula. "Only in 2014, we've distributed 318 million free textbooks among primary and secondary students. A new national curriculum and a creative assessment system have been developed. Madrasah education has been reformed with mainstreaming of science and ICT education."
Hasina said quality education must include an ICT knowledge-base. "In Bangladesh, ICT knowledge is compulsory for secondary and higher secondary students. She said her government's 'Digital Bangladesh' vision for a technology-driven society is implementing a rigorous ICT Master Plan for Education."
The Prime Minister said talented students must continue learning. "Just in 2013, we gave stipends to nearly 12.8 million meritorious secondary-to-bachelor's students to ensure continued learning. Girls received 75 per cent of these stipends."
Hasina went on to say, "Our aim is also to create skilled youths for job markets at home and abroad. Over the last five years, we have increased number of graduates in Technical and Vocational Education Training by seven folds."