Speakers at a programme yesterday said the quality of the country’s mathematics textbooks is the worst in the world.
Quality textbooks are crucial as arithmetic and algorithmic knowledge are vital in almost every field of science including information communication technology (ICT), they said.
The speakers said these at the Fourth Jahurul Haque-Abdullah Al Muti Memorial Lecture organised by Bangladesh Biggyan Jonopriokaran Samity at the Mohammad Shamsul Haque auditorium in the city.
“Giving away computer labs to educational institutes would not help build programmers as most people in the country lack fundamental knowledge on mathematics,” said the samity’s Convenor Munir Hasan.
In the programme, decoder of jute genome Dr Maqsudul Alam and nanotechnology expert Dr Farseen Mannan Mohammedy delivered the memorial lectures.
“India has taken long strides in biometric technology over the years. It has secured $ 6.23 billion through outsourced projects in this technology,” said Maqsudul, an expatriate Bangladeshi scientist who also decoded the genome of papaya and rubber.
“Our country has a lot of talented people who need to be utilised.
“I have worked with a team of 28 people in the jute project, and the chemistry in the team was fantastic, something I have not seen anywhere in the world.”
Prof Mohammedy, who also teaches at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), said nanotechnology would transform the future in ways that cannot be conceived.
“It would revolutionise how we use technology in our everyday life,” he said, “the things that we seen in movies would become real, thanks to this technology.”
Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. It may be able to create many new materials and devices with a vast range of applications, such as in medicine, electronics, biomaterials and energy production.
The country has been lagging behind in many areas of science but more research and education on nanotechnology would give Bangladesh an edge and a strong standing in the scientific community in the future, he said.
