“Smart Classroom” project coming to modernize secondary education

ছবিঃ সংগৃহীত

A research officer from the Research and Innovation Wing of the Directorate, Md. Sifatul Islam, told BSS that, “After completing the feasibility study of the project, work is now underway to prepare the final report. Following that, work on the Technical Assistance Project Proposal (TAPP) will begin. It will be jointly prepared by the Government of Bangladesh and the Chinese side.”

Sifatul Islam further said that after the preparation of the TAPP, it will be reviewed by the Ministry of Education and then sent to the Planning Commission. After approval in the Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) meeting there, the Ministry of Education will begin the final implementation process of the project.

Earlier, a Chinese government-appointed expert firm was engaged to conduct the feasibility study of the project. The Economic Relations Division (ERD) of the Government of Bangladesh is overseeing the overall process in this regard. In addition, a contact person was appointed from the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) to supervise the feasibility study. Preliminary technical discussions were also held between the DSHE’s EMIS cell and the Chinese observation team.

Meanwhile, as part of this initiative, the Ministry of Education gave approval on 16 April for the implementation of Huawei’s proposed programme titled “One Classroom, One Smart Board, and One Teacher, One Tablet.”

Initially, pilot activities will begin at Betgari Mir Shah Alam Girls’ High School in Bogura and Obaidul Haque High School in Chandpur. As part of this, a delegation from Huawei recently visited Chandpur, according to research officer Md. Sifatul Islam.

Tanjina Sharmin, Deputy Secretary (Planning) of the Secondary and Higher Education Division under the Ministry of Education, told BSS, “We want to start the activities of this project from the next fiscal year, meaning from July. Work is being carried out accordingly.”

Officials from the Ministry of Education have said that the integration of AI and cloud technology will encourage students to move away from traditional rote learning towards analytical and technology-based knowledge acquisition, which will play a significant role in achieving the goal of building a ‘future Bangladesh’.