Youth and Sports State Minister Aminul Haq has announced that sports will be included in the grade 4 curriculum from the next academic year, with vocational education becoming compulsory from grade 6.
“There is no alternative to sports to keep young people free from drug addiction,” the state minister said at a shadow parliament debate competition organized by Debate for Democracy at the FDC in Dhaka on Friday, marking International Youth Day. The event was supported by CARE Bangladesh and SOS Children’s Villages Bangladesh.
He said the government has begun working to establish sports as a profession and plans to create playing fields wherever open space is available.
Aminul Haq criticized the previous government, saying that over 17 years, money had been embezzled under the guise of skills development. “The current government has adopted a zero-tolerance policy on corruption. We will not repeat the mistakes of the past government,” he said, adding that the focus is on creating a transparent political environment and making the youth workforce productive.
Debate for Democracy chairman Hasan Ahmed Chowdhury Kiron said the previous regime had failed to produce a skilled workforce matching market demand, instead building a certificate-dependent education system that swelled the ranks of educated unemployed.
In the debate on whether private sector involvement is more important than the government’s in building skilled youth, debaters from Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University defeated those from Eastern University to claim the title.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report