The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, on Thursday joined lawmakers demanding an immediate release of fund for the enlistment of more educational institutions in the monthly pay order. Treasury bench members thumped the desks to support Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim who floated the demand for an immediate fund release for MPO enlistment but the finance minister was not present in the house during the discussion.
Once a non-government educational institution is enlisted for the MPO, it starts getting salary and other benefits from the public exchequer.
Fazlul Karim Selim told the parliament that the government had a lot of success in the education sector but such successes were overshadowed by non-disbursement of the fund for more MPO enlistment.
Selim said that lawmakers were facing pressure from local people for the enlistment of more schools and colleges for the monthly pay order.
In reply, the education minister said that he had received a list of some educational institutions from the lawmakers seeking the enlistment of their
educational institutions for the monthly pay order and he was waiting for the fund from the finance minister.
‘As soon as I get it, I will issue an order for more educational institutions to be enlisted for MPO facilities. I want an immediate release of the fund,’ the minister said.
In reply to a question of BNP lawmaker ABM Ashraf Uddin Nizan, the minister told the house that the government had asked all private universities to set up closed-circuit television cameras on their campuses to save students from the clutch of drugs, especially Yaba tablets.
He said that all private universities had also asked to set up committees for student counselling and stopping them taking narcotic substances.
In reply to another question of Awami League member Shadhana Halder, the education minister said that countrywide political violence carried out by the main opposition BNP and its partner in the alliance Jamaat-e-Islami forced a 5 per cent decline in the pass percentage in the higher secondary certificate examinations compared with the results of the past year’s exams.
Sadhana was not present in the house and the question was not placed on Thursday.
-With New Age input
