The goal of 'Education for AH’ would remain beyond the reach unless a radical change in the balance of power in Bangladesh takes place as well as the under privileged section should be brought Into the mainstream of economic development.

According to Professor of the Dhaka University Dr Zahcda Ahmed, Bangladesh has been unable to utilize its human resources due to lack of right education planning, poverty and the absence of right social Infrastructure for education.

In a session on education Monday at a week-long seminar on "Bangladesh: Past two decades and the current decade" organised by Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad (BUP) she said misplaced attention is being given by the government in different types of educational institutions.

The session held at the Planning and Development Academy was presided over by Professor AF Salahuddin Ahmed and introduced by Professor Nurunnahar Fayzun-

ncsa focussing on the drawbacks of the country's education system was told that there were 45,930 primary schools whereas there were over 70,000 religion-based educational centres (madrasah and maktabs) in the country.

Dr Ahmad citing a Planning Commission statistics on madrasha said that there were 16,000 Ibtedayees, 4,000 Dakhils, 752 Alims. 707 Fazils, and 45 Kamils having over 18 lakhs students in the country. She said there were also over 58.000 Madras has and Maktabs unrecongniscd.

While a large number of these madrashas and maktabs received government subsidies, their teachings were totally out of tune with modern general education.

Terming the growth of madrashas "prolific" she observed that the late 70’s and the whole of 80's witnessed the emergence of "ill-educated but clever, dishonest agents with petro-dollar connections who gradually replaced the local itinerant alms collectors as source of funds for these upcoming Maktabs and Madrashas."

She observed that while a majority of students can not continue their studies due to poverty, the government spends Tk 40,300 for each cadet college students per yeat.

Dr Ahmad said the government spent Tk 532 for per government primary school children, Tk4.273 for a government Madrasha student, Tk 18,084 for an engineering college student and Tk 15,917 for a medical student per year.

One of the other evils of the education system was Inefficiency. she observed, which gave rise to extreme commercialism. As a result, thousands of kindergartens, coaching and tuition centres had grown up on which the government had a small control.

To make the school education economically and socially relevant, she suggested that the curriculum should be flexible enough to Incorporate courses suitable for the various needs of the pupils coming from different strata of life. She also suggested that there should be a core component of basic compulsory subjects including the English as a second language and Mathematics.