Posts of VC of 29 private universities are vacant: Education Minister

Education Minister Mohibul Hassan Chowdhoury on Sunday said the posts of Vice-Chancellor (VC) of 29 private universities in the country are vacant.

Besides, posts of 80 pro-vice chancellor and 35 treasurers of private universities are vacant, he said in reply to a query of Awami League MP Farida Yasmin in parliament.

The Education Minister said that the government has so far given permission to 114 private universities in the country and of them, 105 universities are running educational programmes.

The government has a plan to make education free up to class VIII in a bid to create access to education for all, said the minister in reply to a query from ruling Awami League MP elected from Chattogram-11 M Abdul Latif.

In reply to a written reply, the minister said the Secondary and Higher Education Department is working for that. "It is hoped that this planning will be implemented within a logical period," he added.

Replying to another query, the minister said that currently there are 4,613 educational institutions without MPO facility across the country.

In response to the question of the Opposition Chip Whip Mujibul Haque, the education minister said that an agreement was signed with the Institute of Information and Communication Technology of Bangladesh University of Engineering (BUET) on May 12 to detect fake certificates of the Technical Education Board.

The experts of that institute have already started the process of detecting fake certificates.

All fake certificates found after detection will be canceled and further necessary action will be taken.

In response to the question of independent MP Pankaj Nath, state minister for Primary and Mass Education Rumana Ali said that the number of primary schools with less than 50 students across the country is 944.

Meanwhile, Social Welfare Minister Dipu Moni informed the House that the government has taken a plan to create a database of beggars across the country.

Begging will be eradicated by providing various trainings and counseling to genuine beggars based on accurate data, she said.

Dipu Moni said that there are no accurate statistics on how many people (without address) who depend on others for their livelihood live in Dhaka city.

Due to river erosion, extreme poverty, disease, illiteracy etc. some people are resorting to begging who really need help, she said.

But some unemployed people choose begging as a way of easy income, the minister said