FE REPORT
Speakers at a webinar in the city on Saturday recommended incorporating e-learning guidelines in the upcoming National Education Policy aiming to cope with the evolving global challenges for ensuring increased economic growth and sustainability of livelihoods.
They also suggested popularising effective e-learning system in a new normal post-pandemic situation, which needs infrastructure development including high speed internet bandwidth, quality and demand-driven online contents and policy revision.
Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni as the chief guest attended the webinar styled "E-learning"
Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) organised the event moderated by DCCI President Shams Mahmud.
Professor Osama Khan, pro-vice chancellor of the University of Surrey, UK, presented the keynote paper.
He said, "E-learning is a kind of distance learning. For establishing e-learning system, we need access to resources first."
He also stressed arrangement of electronic library, high quality books, virtual lab resources and availability of journals.
DCCI president Shams Mahmud, citing an estimate of UNESCO, said 1.37 billion students worldwide have been deprived of education due to Covid-19.
"After a great disruption, in the new normal situation, an immense possibility of e-learning system has emerged," he said.
In terms of infrastructure and internet affordability, Bangladesh lags far behind in the south Asian region, he observed.
"We need to develop infrastructure and quality online contents to implement e-learning system in the country effectively," he said.
Students' participation in vocational education among the OECD countries is about 45 percent whereas in Bangladesh it is less than 15 percent, he added.
He recommended that VAT and surcharge on the usages of internet be reduced.
Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni said the government started the process to review the existing education policy to cope with the fast evolving challenges of the world and make the people technology savvy aiming to propel economic growth and sustainability of livelihoods.
"We (the government) have taken initiative to review the National Education Policy so that we could cope with the challenges of the globe that keep evolving before us," she said.
"In the wake of the 4th Industrial Revolution, we normally shall have to go for e-learning in the next four to five years," she said.
She stressed the need for industry and academia collaboration for ensuring job-replacement of educated youths.
"Our resilience and adoptability levels are high, which play a catalytic role to face the challenges, she said.
The minister said the people of Bangladesh are very much technology-friendly.
The government has been successfully able to spread online education facility across the country, she commented.
She suggested focusing more on research and innovation at the university level.
Prof Dr Harun-or-Rashid, vice-chancellor of National University Bangladesh, said, "The pandemic is a wake-up call for us to think about e-learning system."
National University selected 1,500 teachers out of 60,000 to provide 17,500 lectures online, he said, adding the university has recently appointed a director of e-learning.
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