Dhaka Bureau: Chinese investment is coming to primary education in Bangladesh. Japan, the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations have already invested in this sector. China has taken the initiative to expand more in Bangladesh by investing in primary education. It should be noted that China’s support for higher education has been there for a long time. These news items have been reported by the relevant sources.
According to analysts, China aims to gain the trust of the country’s people by investing in social sectors such as education. Senior officials of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education do not want to talk about it now. According to them, China’s proposal should come first. Then the details will be given. Incidentally, the US currently bears the ‘cost’ of subject-specific training of primary teachers at PTIs. Japan, the European Union, and the United Nations are investing in various projects in primary education. The government of India is giving scholarships to Bangladeshi students.
If you want to know, the information and public relations officer of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education said Mahbubur Rahman told the media that China’s ambassador to Dhaka, Yao Wen, will come to the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education and meet the state minister on Tuesday (April 11) morning. The meeting with the ambassador after the meeting at the state minister’s office will be attended by the secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, senior officials, and the director general and additional director general of the directorate.
An official, who did not wish to be named, said the meeting will begin at around 11:30 a.m. today. It will be asked of the ambassador what China wants to do for the development of primary education in Bangladesh. Then Bangladesh will ask the ambassador for China’s cooperation in the construction and modernization of 67 Teacher Training Institute (PTI) buildings across the country.
Rasheda K. Chowdhury, chief executive of Morcha Ganasaksharta Abhiyan, an NGO working on education and advisor to the former caretaker government, told the media that Bangladesh’s capacity in education has improved. However, in terms of reality, there is a need for international assistance. In this regard, China’s policy is much better than America’s. However, there are no conditions attached to receiving grants from China for the development of primary education; unconditional donations may be taken. According to him, China has expertise in infrastructure development. Bangladesh’s government can work to improve primary education with donations from China. He said, for this reason, the donation from China can be used to improve the skills of teachers. Besides, he said that China’s donation can also be used for the construction of digital classrooms.
Those concerned said that China gives importance to three issues in its expansion policy. These include the economy, military, and education and technology sectors. Earlier, China had invested in various projects in Bangladesh, but this is the first time that the country’s ambassador in Dhaka is going to hold a meeting with the State Minister of Primary and Mass Education regarding the interest of investing in primary education.
Analysts said that in the ongoing geopolitical context, various powerful countries of the world began to give more importance to Bangladesh due to its orientation towards China. India also increased aid to Bangladesh. In such a situation, the news of China’s initiative to invest in primary education in Bangladesh raised new thoughts in the regional politics of South Asia. According to them, when the country’s opponents started a rat race to get China’s help, the government made it clear that Xi Jinping’s China was on the side of the Bangladesh government with the initiative to bring China’s investment into Bangladesh’s education.
Analyzing the strategy of geopolitics, the US Biden government is worried about the way China is influencing regional politics. For the past few days, when American President Biden sought India’s help in building resistance against China, Chinese President Xi Jinping settled the dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia. As a result, a part of Europe is leaning towards China. And in that situation, seeing the interest of Chinese investment in the education of Bangladesh, the Bangladesh government has made the best move to bring China a little closer. The Indian government has also kept a close watch on such diplomatic moves by Bangladesh. India is giving considerable importance to bringing the two countries closer together with the new relationship between China and Bangladesh in education. Diplomats consider the news of Nepal’s recent shift towards China and China’s aid to Bangladesh’s education to be particularly worrying for India.
When asked, diplomatic analyst Munshi Faiz Ahmad told the media that China is already helping Bangladesh’s higher education. Maybe this is the first time in primary education. But this is what people are trying to find by exalting themselves in various ways. It is not right to look for such plans in an innocent matter about China. An attempt was made to impose a cover-up. He said, China is not America. China spreads influence through friendship. On the contrary, America wants to exert influence through force.
Former Foreign Secretary Shamser Mobin Chowdhury told the media that it seems that Bangladesh will benefit from China’s assistance in Bangladesh’s primary education. However, I don’t think there is any opportunity for new thinking in South Asian politics.
