A national level consultation on ’Draft Education Act 2013’ was held on 31st August 2013 at the PKSF Conference room in Dhaka. The meeting was chaired by Rasheda K Choudhury while Dr. Quazi Kholiquzzoman Ahmad, Chairman, PKSF and Adviser, Education Act 2013 Formulation Committee, was present as the Guest of Honor . Diverse group of stakeholders including members of the Education Watch Group , researchers, academics, representatives from national and international NGOs, Development Partners, Teacher Unions and legal practitioners participated in the meeting and shared their view on the Draft. Before the open discussion, Professor Shafi Ahmed presented the views collected from the local level stakeholders through 10 sub-national consultations. Dr. Manzoor Ahmed presented the feedbacks received from National NGOs, INGOs, teacher associations, research groups and other stakeholders at the national level. CAMPE, a national coalition of NGOs working towards access, quality and equity in the basic education sub- sector has been collecting feedbacks from different parts of the country through consultations /meetings on the draft Education Act 2013. The feedbacks collected from the local and national level will be compiled by a task team and submitted to the Education Ministry next week.
During the meeting the Hon’ble Minister in his response to the Civil Society comments on punitive measures against teachers and the frequent use of the word “Punishment” assured everyone that they would consider replacing the word, since most people have expressed their reservation and consider it humiliating for teachers. He also mentioned that the government is going to place in the next parliament session, scheduled for September 12, a bill with provisions making it mandatory for educational institutions to get registered with the authorities concerned as per existing laws.
Representatives of both print and electronic media were present and asked relevant questions to the Minister and Civil Society Leaders present on the occasion.
Prior to this, feedback were collected from the field through CAMPE partner organizations- ALO (Natore), BRAC (Comilla), CARITAS (Sylhet), CODEC (Patuakhali), DAM (Jessore), Teacher Unions (Munshiganj), World Vision (Chittagong & Dinajpur) and Zabarang (CHT).Members of the Education Act Formulation Committee of the Ministry of Education attended some of the local level consultations. Two teams of volunteer resource persons, one under the leadership of Dr. Manzoor Ahmed of BRAC U-IED, another under the leadership of Prof Shafi Ahmed of Dhaka University, worked very hard to compile, review, analyze and edit the recommendations for submission to the Ministry. The volunteers were from Action-Aid Bangladesh, ASPBAE, CAMPE and INTERACTION.
It may be noted that the Education Ministry shared the draft Education Act 2013 last month on its website in order to get feedback from the people. CAMPE took this opportunity and organized a number of feedback workshops at both local and national levels.
The aim of WTD is to mobilize support for teachers and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by teachers. It is teachers who can lead the way to achieve the Education for All Goals. Teachers stand as role model and play crucial role in building an educated and enlightened society.
To observe the event, CAMPE organized 2 preparatory meetings with its stakeholders on 24 and 25 September, 2013. Representatives from many organizations and Teacher Associations shared their planned programs in this meeting and decided to observe the day in a coordinated manner.
At the national level CAMPE & its partners participated in a rally organized by Teacher associations and Dhaka University jointly. At the sub-national level CAMPE observed the World Teachers’ Day 2013 in 51 districts in collaboration with its partner organizations and Teacher Associations. Discussion meetings on the role of teachers, rally, human chain, courtyard meetings, cultural programs, street play, art competition, essay competition and some other motivational/awareness raising innovative programs were organized at the sub national level. More than 30 thousand posters were published and disseminated all over the country.
Both print and electronic media covered the day highlighting the theme of WTD 2013.The “Education News” (Shikkha Shanbad) aired by Channel i focused on the teachers. Independent TV and ATN News in partnership with CAMPE, also aired two TV Talk shows. Eight Wakeup Calls were published in eight national dailies, both Bangla and English.
