Create more scope for education for poor: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina yesterday stressed taking more initiatives so that the country's poor and meritorious students have a greater access to education.

"More initiatives should be there so that the poor and meritorious students get greater scope of education and higher education," she said while presiding over the 3rd meeting of the Advisory Council of the PM's Education Assistance Trust Fund.

PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed journalists after the meeting.

Hasina said her government has attached the highest importance to the education sector since it was the dream of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to free the country from poverty as well as ensure education for all.

The prime minister said the Awami League government increased the literacy rate by 20 percent during the 1996-2001 period, but the BNP-Jamaat clique after returning to power in 2001, pushed the country backwards in all field as the literacy rate again came down to its previous level.

She alleged whenever BNP-Jamaat assumed office, they stopped the development activities, especially in the education sector.

Mentioning that the PM's Education Assistance Trust Fund was formed with Tk 1000 crore seed money to help the poor and meritorious students continue their studies, she said stipends and support to students from the Trust would continue during the days to come.

The meeting also reviewed the progress of activities of the Trust over the last year.