Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has claimed that decentralisation of the National University (NU) aims to protect the institution by removing all complications in its functioning, report agencies.
"As the number of colleges in the country has been increasing day by day, some complications have cropped up in the functioning of National University. To reduce growing pressure on the NU, it has been decentralised," he said Friday.
The minister was addressing the biennial conference of the district and city units of the Bangladesh College-University Teachers' Association in Sylhet.
Since 1992, all the government colleges have been placed under the NU.
Prime Minister (PM) Sheikh Hasina while inspecting the functioning of the education ministry on Aug 31 directed that all the government colleges be affiliated with the National University.
At present, there are around 2,600 colleges, including 279 government colleges, under the NU.
The education minister said, "The NU has already turned into a failed institution. Due to some wrongdoings, 1,100 people lost jobs following a court order."
"This is why we are decentralising it. An office will also be set up in Sylhet. By doing so we are actually trying to protect the institution."
"National University will be decentralised for the sake of the university... This decentralisation will reduce the pressure of the university and improve the quality of education," he said.
"An office will also be opened in Sylhet to reduce the work load of the university," he added.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid Friday hinted that the pay scale of university and college teachers will also be increased in tandem with the hike in the pay scale for government employees.
"The pay scale of government employees has been increased after the Awami League government came to power. The perimeter of this pay scale will not exclude the teachers," the Minister said.
The Education Minister also noted that the country's students are world class in terms of merit, and that they can improve further if they are properly taken care of.
He stressed the need for efforts by teachers for improving the quality of education and Bakshis for their efforts in this regard.
