Education and Primary and Mass Education Minister Dr A N M Ehsanul Haq Milon has pledged special measures to replace outdated equipment, modernise laboratories and address a long-running teacher shortage at Bangladesh’s technical education institutions. He made the assurances on Monday at a post-China visit press conference in the Technical and Madrasa Education Division’s meeting room at the education ministry.

Milon said China’s industry-academia linkage model was notably strong and Bangladesh aims to follow that model in technical and general education. He said administrative procedures for recruiting needed teachers and modernising laboratories were being considered on a priority basis. The minister also stressed preparing students for global labour markets and demand from domestic and overseas industries.

During the August 26-28 China visit, Bangladesh and China signed a memorandum of understanding announcing a China-Bangladesh Vocational Education, Training and Research Centre. Three cooperation platforms were also launched, including vocational teacher training, vocational education research and Chinese language-skill development centres. Plans include opportunities to study Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Arabic alongside technical education.