Govt to formulate law against coaching, guide book businesses: Nahid

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid today said the government is going to formulate specific law to bring an end to coaching and guide book businesses in the country.

"Teachers, who remain busy in coaching business instead of classes, will be brought to book under the law," he said.

Nahid came up with the observations while addressing an orientation program titled "Connecting Classroom" for district and upazila education officers at a city hotel. Organized by British Council Bangladesh, the programme was presided over by its director Barbara Wickham.

Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) director (administration) Prof Shamsul Huda addressed the function as special guest.

"Due to different initiatives taken by the present government, no question papers were leaked in last three years. We can hear about many rumors of question paper leaking just before the start of exams each year, but all these are baseless rumors," Nahid added.

Accepting the fact that sometimes question papers do get leaked just before one or half an hour of the start of exam, the minister said "Some corrupt teachers are involved with such heinous act. When they go to receive the question papers for their respective institutions, they leak the paper in the midway."

Acclaiming British Council's initiative, Nahid said such programme will play an important role in improving the quality of the education in the country.

British Council Bangladesh director Barbara Wickham in her speech said, "Our main aim is to make the students of this country prepared for the 21st century. For this, we are assisting the teachers to gather necessary efficiency through such programme."

She said the programme is going on in Bangladesh since 2009 with joint financing from British Council and Department For International Development (DFID) and the council has penned an agreement with DSHE to take the programme across the country.