Govt to take final decision on non-MPO schools during next budget: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said on Wednesday the government will take the final decision over bringing non-MPO primary schools under the Monthly Pay Order (MPO) system as per the policy during the next national budget, reports UNB.
"Since we've promised, we'll do it considering all these things (necessary requirements), enlisting all schools and examining school locations. We'll be able to take the final decision during the next budget," she said.
The Prime Minister said this in Parliament while responding to a supplementary question from Tarikat Federation Chairman Syed Nazibul Bashar Maizvandhary, MP (Chittagong-2), during the PM's question-answer session.
Noting that the government nationalises a school or brings it under MPO on the basis of a policy, she said, "We'll consider all these things, including the number of students, standard of a school, standard of teaching and teachers."
Sheikh Hasina said the government will examine which schools are eligible to be included under the MPO system.
She told the House that she refused even a request from one of her relatives for nationalising a school with only 150 students in Rangpur. "There shall be a logical ground [to nationalise a school]," she said, adding that she cannot commit a big injustice nationalising a school at the request of a relative.
Hasina said her government has taken various steps to improve the standard of education giving the highest importance to it.
She said the government nationalised 26,000 schools after returning to power in 2009. "There was a condition at that time that no demand would be placed to nationalise any more. We've included many schools under the MPO system," she added.
Hasina said the government prepared a policy assessing how many schools are required for an area.
But, she said, the teachers came up with different demands on various occasions.
Replying to a starred question from Awami League MP Akhtar Jahan (Reserved seat-5), the Prime Minister said some 260 crore free textbooks were distributed among the students of pre-primary, primary and secondary schools and madrashas across the country from 2010 to 2018 academic years.
"A total of 259,79,22,902 free textbooks were distributed among the students of pre-primary, primary, ebtedayee, secondary,, Dakhil (vocational) and SSC (vocational) from 2010 to 2018 academic years," she said.
Some 1,06,68,388 guidebooks were distributed among teachers during the period, she added.
An amount of Tk 3,985 crore was spent on distribution of the free textbooks and teacher guidebooks in the last nine years, the Prime Minister said.