Unnayan Onneshan has organized it’s First National Education Conference on education titled “Whither Policy Reforms in Education in Bangladesh:  Lessons and Challenges”, on 2nd and 3rd March at CIRDAP auditorium, Dhaka. Education specialist, researcher and activist will present their papers at the conference. Representative form government, NGOs, donor agencies and civil society will be present at the conference.

Themes of the Conference

Education seems to be intrumentalised as a commodity in this era of global capitalism. Neo-liberal reforms have been spearheaded by a range of multilateral and supranational organizations tied into the system of global governance- the World Bank, the IMF, the WTO with participation of national and international nongovernmental agencies.  Bangladesh like other economies had to adjust to this new "structural" reality. Education policies and programmes have been designed, shaped and reshaped in this neo-liberal framework for conformation and reproduction. Neo-liberal educational reforms are directed from the notions of open markets, the reduction of the public sector, the decrease of state intervention and deregulation of markets. The focus point of the papers were:

1. Knowledge generation system and Neoliberal policy framework in Bangladesh.

2. Sectoral experiences in policy reforms and     programme implementation in Bangladesh

2nd March On the first day of the conference, Mr. Nurul Kabir, Editor, The Daily New Age; Piash Karim, Professor, BRAC University and Farhad Mozhar, Director, UBINIG chaired their respective sessions. Professor Muzaffer Ahmad, , Arup Rahee, Dr. Sajjad Zohir, Farida Akhter, Professor Salimullah Khan,  Pavel Partha, Manos Chowdhury, Sayeed Ferdous, Shaswati Dewan, Nasrin Khandoker, Md. Nabil Juberi and Masrur Shahid Hossain presented their papers in three separate sessions.

3rd March On the second day of the conference, Anu Muhammad, Professor Jahangirnagar University, Ajoy Roy, Professor, Dhaka University, Mr. Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, Chairperson, Unnayan Onneshan chaired their respective sessions. Professor Shahidul Islam, Rabiul Islam, Gazi Mahabubul Alam, Sarwar Basher, Mirja Mohammad Shahjamal, Maliha Shahjahan, ShamimaTasmin, Kawser-Bin Khaled, Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, Hosnneara Feroja, K. M. Enamul Hoque, Jakir Hossain, Masuda Khatun Shefali, Mesbah Kamal, Sonjib Drong, Ali Manash, Nusrat Zerin presented their papers in three separate sessions.