With the aim of making the poor boys and girls of rural areas modern and globally acclaimed citizens, the ICT Division will sign a ‘Knowledge Partnership’ MoU with the Aga Khan Academy. As a part of this, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Literacy Campaign Awareness Program will be launched in the institute, said the Minister of State for Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak.
Referring to Aga Khan Academy as a ‘role model’, the state minister said that modernization of government educational institutions is possible on the basis of partnership with them. It is also possible to work on ICT as education, and ICT in education use cases. Aga Khan Academy and ICT Division will work together to develop AI Awareness Program, Innovation Challenge Fund and Education and Knowledge Ecosystem.
The state minister conveyed his plan during an exchange of views with reporters after visiting the Aga Khan Academy at Bashundhara of the capital on Tuesday. He also interacted with the students during the visit. Then the students expressed their interest in government website security certificate protocol, artificial intelligence, deep fake and so on.
Welcoming this interest of the students, Palak said, smart educational institutions are needed to create smart citizens. Our goal is not only to educate the smart citizens of Smart Bangladesh in higher education, but also to teach them creative, innovative, problem-solving mindset along with ethical values. Therefore, through talent hunt, a world-class education environment will be created in the country for the talented people of remote villages.
At this time, Aga Khan Development Network’s diplomatic representative in Bangladesh Mr. Munir Merali, Aga Khan Academy Head Ms. Suvina Shunglu was present.
The state minister also informed the Journalists that the Aga Khan Academy and the ICT Division will work together as knowledge partners in promoting artificial intelligence and robotics through the Sheikh Hasina Institute of Frontier Technology at Shibchar, in online platforms including Muktopath of A2i, Eduhub and in training teachers of the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education. Our only goal is to build Smart Bangladesh, a modern version of the golden Bengal of Bangabandhu’s dream under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Over the past 15 years, we have successfully implemented Digital Bangladesh under the guidance and supervision of IT Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy. The transition from Digital Bangladesh to Smart Bangladesh is very challenging. Those challenges can be met depending on education, technology and knowledge and smart Bangladesh will be developed depending on these three.
Palak said, AI powered government brain is being developed in the country to make public and private services easier. He said we want to make an AI Act to reduce the negative use of AI and reduce the risk. Which is still in the drafting stage. Within the next 5 years all government services will be paperless-smart, all transactions will be cashless, and all these will be inter-operable, inter-connected and automated.