Digital classroom campaign started in 28 Para Kendras (neighborhood centers) of remote hilly areas. Minister of Posts and Telecommunications Mustafa Jabbar inaugurated the program titled Digitization of Education System of Government Primary Schools in underprivileged areas by handing over digital classroom materials, tablets with digital content and textbooks in 28 neighborhood centers run by the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board.
The Minister emphasized the need for digital transformation of education to meet the challenges of the digital age. He said, education is a matter of acceptance. Education has no value in acquiring knowledge if students cannot retain it. The minister said this while speaking as the Chief Guest on the Digital platform at the conference hall of Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board in Rangamati.
BTRC Chairman Shyam Sundar Sikdar presided over the event and while the keynote speech was presented by Jasmine Juin, CEO of Bijoy Digital. The Chittagong Hill tracts Development Board Vice Chairman Nurul Alam Chowdhury, Rangamati Deputy Commissioner Mohammad Mizanur Rahman, Superintendent of Police Mir Abu Tauhid and Project Director Abdul Wahab spoke on the occasion.
The Minister pointed out that there can be no better work than creating traditional education opportunities for disadvantaged people in remote areas and said that this is a shining example in the digital transformation of education. Highlighting the fruitful contribution of teaching digital content on digital devices, Mustafa Jabbar said that children are able to happily complete their one year syllabus within 3 months with this digital method. The visionary of digital transformation of education, Mr. Mustafa Jabbar, citing the example of a digital school run under his patronage in Purbadhala of Netrakona district, said that children must be prepared for the future. Young students don’t want to go home even after the school hour is over, after receiving digital contents.
The minister expressed his experience while visiting the digital teaching program of some schools run under this project in Manikganj and Munshiganj districts and said that many students of the surrounding schools are coming to these schools. There is a demand to provide digital content in schools that have multi media.
He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Digital Bangladesh program is the driving force for our progress. Digital Bangladesh program is the main mantra to make us better than the developed world during the Covid-19 pandemic. The minister said, in the continuation of the implementation of the Digital Bangladesh program, we have been able to convert the curriculum to digital in the last 14 years since 2009. This is the first and so far the only digital database in the Bengali language to be created in the world. Digital learning does not mean PowerPoint presentations or televised classes for students.
Digital content of education is the introduction of education on digital devices with software programmed with interactivity, image, audio, video, animation, text and other multimedia content of conventional textbooks for teaching on digital devices. This method has been taught in the developed world for a long time. In Bangladesh, the initiative of Ananda Multimedia started the journey of digital transformation of education by providing education in this method in 32 multimedia schools on a limited scale since 1999. He called upon all concerned to work in a coordinated initiative including educators, technicians, teachers, students in the digital transformation of education to face the challenges of digital industrial revolution. The Minister expressed firm commitment to provide all possible assistance in digital transformation of education among the underprivileged population.
In the original article, Jasmine Juin said that creating quality digital content for children is a huge challenge. In the last 14 years, Bijoy Digital Content has been able to overcome those challenges. He detailed the Hon’ble Minister’s concerted efforts in creating digital content. He said that educational materials are a very sensitive matter – there can be no mistakes in the educational materials. He emphasized the need for quality digital content in the digital transformation of education, saying that a good content contributes effectively to the development of children’s talent. He highlighted the various technical aspects of creating digital content for education and described his experience of the past 14 years in this sector.
Directorate of Telecommunication is implementing this project funded by BTRC’s SOF fund for digital transformation of education in 650 government primary schools in underprivileged remote and hard to reach areas. Under this project, primary school digital content teaching program started in 28 neighborhood centers of hilly region.
The local authorities demanded that all neighborhood centers under the Chittagong Hill tracts Development Board be brought under the digital classroom. Vice Chairman of Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board and other speakers made this demand to the Minister of Posts and Telecommunication to establish digital classrooms to help build digital human resources by eliminating digital disparity among the underprivileged population.
Later, Jasmine Juin, CEO of Bijoy Digital distributed digital content and laptops among the students.
