Education Minister A N M Ehsanul Haque Milon said the prime minister wants national budget allocations for education raised to 5 percent. He made the remarks on Tuesday as chief guest at the KUET Day programme at Khulna University of Engineering and Technology. He said Bangladesh has talented human resources that must be properly used for national development and progress.

Milon said a decision has been made to provide a tablet each to 116,000 students who achieved GPA-5, aiming to encourage strong academic results. The government is also planning to provide bicycles to encourage girls’ education at the secondary level. He said complications involving the recruitment of about 4,500 teachers at the Education Ministry are under discussion for prompt resolution.

The minister called for reviewing the need before opening new university departments and stressed technology-based education. He said courses related to electric vehicles, artificial intelligence and robotics should be introduced. He expressed frustration that an application to introduce an AI course had been pending at the UGC for two years. KUET observes its university day annually on September 1, marking its 2003 conversion from BIT into a full engineering and technology university.