Poverty alleviation not possible without education: PM (Video)

Expressing satisfaction over this year’s SSC results, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday said poverty alleviation is not possible without development in education.

"It’s not possible to eliminate poverty without development in education," she said when Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid handed over the results of the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent examinations-2012 to the PM at her official residence Ganobhaban.

Terming education as the main tool for building a poverty-free country, Hasina said her government is firmly committed to achieving the goal.

The Prime Minister congratulated the students who passed the SSC exams and thanked the teachers for their efforts to help the students pass the exams successfully.

She expressed satisfaction over the results of this year's SSC examinations and said, “Our students are meritorious and they can do well, given the minimum opportunities."

Hasina said the results are very satisfactory as the examinations were held in a copy-free atmosphere this year.

She said her government has been working relentlessly to improve the quality of education alongside increasing literacy rate to build an illiteracy-free Bangladesh by 2014.

In this connection, she listed various steps of the government for the development of education in the country.

Hasina said the government has distributed free textbooks among the students up to the secondary level, provided scholarships to female students up to the secondary level, is timely holding public examinations and announcing their results. “The government has also constituted Education Assistance Trust Fund for the poor and meritorious students.”

She mentioned that her previous government (1996-2001) had raised the country’s literacy rate to 65 percent from 45-46 percent. “But the rate came down to 50 percent during the rule of the last BNP-Jamaat alliance government as they did nothing for the development of education,” she said.

Hasina urged the students to pay more attention to their studies for better results to establish Bangladesh an enlightened and dignified nation in the world.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Education Secretary Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury and Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Abul Kalam Azad were present on the occasion.

Besides, Barisal City Corporation Mayor Shawkat Hossain Hiron, parliament member from Barisal-1 constituency Talukdar Md Yunus, Barisal Divisional Commissioner Abu Hena Md Rahmatullah Munim and heads of Barisal Zila School, Barisal Girls' High School and Barisal Technical School and College also spoke through videoconferencing.

While talking to the people of Barisal through the videoconferencing, the Prime Minister said her government has undertaken massive development programmes for the development of southern region, including Barisal, which was neglected for a long time.

“We’ve undertaken massive uplift programmes for the development of southern region as we believe in balanced development of all regions,” she said.

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