Policy Makers & Young Leaders for Digital Bangladesh

This was the keystone of a program named “Policy Café”; Policy Dialogue with Youth on ICT and Education Policies which was held at Bangladesh Computer council, Agargaon at Tuesday, 25th February. The program was organized by Center for Research and Information (CRI). About 150 students from different universities expressed their ideas and views on ICT and Education policies at the program.

Chief Guest of this program was Md. Mostafizur Rahman; Hon’ble Minister: Ministry of Primary and Mass Education. Zunaid Ahmed Palak; Hon’ble State Minister: Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology was the special guest of this program. Dr. Mamun Ur Rashid and representative from Future Solution for Business (FSB) ; Sadequa Hassan Senjuti were among the speakers.

Primary and Mass education Minister Mostafizur Rahman said, “Government has decided to establish 1500 new primary schools and the works of this schools have already been started.” These schools will be installed in the remote areas of Bangladesh. Hon’ble minister said that this is an initiative from the government to provide equal education for the marginalized groups of the country. Government has also taken to steps to digitalize the existing education system. He said, “The motto of AL government is to make Bangladesh a country of 100 % literacy rate”.

Hon’ble State Minister for the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunication and Information Technology; Zunaid Ahmed Palak said, government is planning to set up 100,000 WiFi hotspots across Bangladesh to make Internet service more accessible. He also said 3-G will be available to all the corners of Bangladesh by next year. Bangladesh will connect itself to second submarine cable by 2016, he added. He said, To make a Digital Bangladesh government has decided to provide Internet to the union level with the help of Optical Fiber by next three years.

Students also expressed their ideas and views in the program. They demanded accessible internet and a reduction in the service charge. They proposed the use of idle bandwidth of submarine cable in educational institutions if possible.

Center for Research and Information (CRI) organized this program to give the youngsters of our country a floor to take part in the policy making process. These programs are expected to make the practice of democracy in our country stronger.