Emphasis on four issues for Inclusive Blended Education in Bangladesh
For successful implementation of Inclusive Blended Education in Bangladesh, emphasis needs to be placed on infrastructure, startup ecosystem for innovation, creative content roadmap and partnership. The recommendation came after a high-level panel discussion on Thursday night organized by the research and development subcommittee of the Blended Education National Task Force (BENT).
The Minister of Education Dr. Dipu Moni, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mostafa Jabbar; State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak; Monica Desai, Global Head of Connectivity and Access at Meta (renamed Facebook) and Mr. Alex Aung, Chief of Special Initiatives of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and co-lead of Giga were present as panel speakers.
Taking part in the panel discussion, the Minister of Education Dr. Dipu Moni emphasized taking necessary steps to implement the blended education system in the plan to address the challenges created during the pandemic and to take advantage of the opportunities created. The Minister of Education emphasized providing more training to the teachers and making them use the opportunities created by the use of technology. Emphasizing on multimedia content, she said, "We are always talking about making teaching fun for students and teaching will be fun only when it includes everything." "We need each other's cooperation and partnership," she said. I hope that everyone here will come forward in terms of partnership and cooperation.”
The Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Mostafa Jabbar said that the creation of digital content, digital connectivity and easy availability of digital devices are the three major challenges in the transformation of education system. Talking about making multimedia and interactive content accessible to all, the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications mentioned that 5G network is one of the technologies used for the whole world, especially in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Robotics, IoT, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality and others.
State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, “Our next goal is to provide quality education, quality internet and quality electricity to every person in the country and delivering health facilities. Referring to the 3A model of Sajeeb Wazed, ICT Adviser to the Prime Minister for Digital Bangladesh, the State Minister for ICT said, “The first priority of Digital Bangladesh Vision was to connect citizens with the Internet. We make the internet affordable for the people of the country, want to be affordable and unobstructed. He said there were plans to set up 300 schools of the future in the country. Each lab will have AR-VR lab facilities and for this, the Minister of State for ICT has called upon Meta to assist in the distribution of content and knowledge.
Mrs. Monica Desai, Global Head of Connectivity and Access at Meta, explains how Meta's connectivity program can work to accelerate Bangladesh's digital economy. She said that we are cooperating with the government of the country and the partners involved in establishing connectivity to achieve digital growth. We are also working with them to find new opportunities to ensure access to these technologies at affordable prices. She also spoke about the commitment of META to fully cooperate in achieving the inclusive digital economy of Bangladesh and becoming a regional role model.
Mr. Alex Aung, Chief of Special Initiatives of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and co-lead of Giga said that we may work with the government to attract new investment opportunities and markets, citing existing challenges in meeting operational costs through government funding. Explaining how Giga’s $5 billion bond would be utilized, he said Giga could help create investments in Bangladesh through regulatory policy reviews and pilot connectivity projects.
Basically, Bangladesh has made significant progress in securing the right to education. However, there are still some challenges in quality teaching in the classroom. Which was even before the pandemic. A different multi-model teaching strategy, combining high-tech, no-tech and low-tech approaches, has been adopted to ensure continuity of teaching during pandemic. Policymakers have thought of creating new effective and customized blende d education ecosystems to make this approach more convenient for students of different levels. Subsequently, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, the Department of Posts and Telecommunications and the Department of Information and Communication Technology have been working on the preparation and implementation of the National Blended Education Master Plan.
NM Zeaul Alam, Senior Secretary, Department of Information and Communication Technology and Chairman, Research and Development Sub-Committee, Blended Education National Task Force (BENT) delivered the concluding remarks. The panel discussion was moderated by Anir Chowdhury, Policy Advisor, a2i. Afzal Hossain Sarwar, policy specialist of a2i delivered an introductory speech. The event was attended by senior officials of ICT Department, Postal and Telecommunication Department, Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, a2i, Meta and Giga among others.
