Technically skilled teacher training program officially started from Thursday for Smart Bangladesh. 36,000 teachers from 9,000 Sheikh Russell Digital Lab institutions across the country will be trained under the half-term programme. Apart from developing smart human resources through this training, the ICT State Minister Zunaid Ahmed Palak hopes that teachers will also play a role in increasing the reserves of the country by freelancing.
While speaking at the opening ceremony of the virtual training program, Palak termed the teachers the ‘backbone of education’ and said that in order to build smart citizens of Bangladesh, the historic responsibility of fulfilling the most sacred responsibility of building them has been vested on the teachers. If they are not able to make them properly technologically competent, the projects worth thousands of crores taka will be worthless. Therefore, in addition to ICT teachers, three more teachers are being trained in each school to build smart citizens, the first pillar of Smart Bangladesh.
Moreover, the state minister emphasized making them skilled in the field of technology so that today’s students of future smart Bangladesh can become entrepreneurs and create self-employment instead of just chasing jobs.
He said that there are billions of employment opportunities in the technology sector all over the world which can be done from home. In the meantime, using the power of the Internet and the talent of the youth, we have trained about 43 thousand during the Corona period under the Learning and Earning project. Hundreds of thousands freelancers have been trained. 10 thousand 500 women entrepreneurs have been created in She-Power project.
While speaking as the chief guest, Zunaid Ahmed Palak called upon the students to become technologically proficient as well as aware of digital economy and became a smart citizen. He further said, ‘in the future, 32 types of special software will be given to all schools in Bangladesh to make them paperless. 1 thousand more smart schools will be built. 1 million programmers will be created by 2025. One million freelancers will be created from among those who are anxious for employment.
Sheikh Russel Digital Lab Establishment Project Director SAM Rafiqunnabi presided over the opening ceremony while the event was presided over by the ICT Division Secretary Md. Samsul Arefin.
Director General of Information and Communication Technology Department Md. Mostafa Kamal and District Commissioners, UNOs and Headmasters of schools from different parts of the country also spoke on the occasion.