News Flash
DHAKA, July 18, 2025 (BSS) - Speakers at a workshop have said the manuals being developed by icddr,b and Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) will address the needs of all underprivileged children, including those with disabilities.
They made the comments in a day-long manual finalisation workshop held in the DPE Auditorium in the capital on Thursday.
In collaboration with the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) and as part of the EN-REACH Education project, icddr,b hosted the workshop.
Parents, head teachers, assistant teachers, district and sub-district primary education officers, representatives from the organizations of persons with disabilities, and the members of the national advisory committee attended the workshop.
In his introductory remarks, Md. Kamrul Hasan, Director (Policy and Operations) of DPE, stated that they are very appreciative of the efforts of icddr,b and asked all attendees to carefully read the parents' training and teachers' training manual for the pre-primary level handed to them.
He also projected that the collaboration will assist improve pre-primary teacher training, with parents benefiting the most.
The necessity of inclusive measures in all areas of the educational system, including administration, training, teaching, parenting, and so forth, was emphasized by the guest of honor, Md. Joynal Abedin, Deputy Director (Pre-Primary and Inclusive Education) of DPE.
The special guest of the workshop, Md. Mahbubur Rahman Billah, Director (Training Division) said, "Never before have so many relevant parties been involved in the development of an inclusive training manual. We have a great responsibility now to see it through to completion because we were heavily involved in its development. We have contributed to validation ourselves. We shall now exercise vigilance to ensure that our initiative does not go in vain."
Raza Md. Abdul Hye, Additional Director General (Revenue) of DPE, was the chief guest at the workshop. He applauded the efforts made to address the deficiencies of the government manuals and develop a more sophisticated one. The manuals created with the idea that all underprivileged children, including those with disabilities, need to have the chance to learn through this pre-primary system and we might be able to implement it at every school if it proves to be successful, he added.
The workshop chair, Dr. Jena Hamadani, emeritus scientist of icddr,b, thanked all the participants for their contributions to the development of the manuals.
She said, "I am thrilled to see how enthusiastic and committed everyone is in finalizing both the manuals. It is my hope that we will successfully finish this project. Additionally, we envision scaling up. We are now working in just 48 schools across two districts. However, we hope to expand it throughout the country in the future and believe that DPE will continue supporting us."
This research project is supported by GPE KIX, in partnership with Canada’s International Development Research Centre (IDRC).
The workshop was jointly moderated by NCTB's senior specialist Md. Abdul Mumin Musabbir, DPE's education officer Md. Sharif ul Islam and research investigators of icddr,b Mohammad Abdul Awal Miah and Utpal Mallick.
