Muhammad Osman Farruk Minister of Education The Honorable M. Osman Farruk was appointed as Minister of Education in Bangladesh in October 2001. He entered the ministry from a senior manager position at the World Bank, where he had led, since 1974, numerous operation missions in Africa and Asia on agriculture and rural development for poverty alleviation. Dr. Farruk has served in the Ministry of Health for the Government of former East Pakistan, and lectured at the Bangladesh Agriculture University in Mymensingh. Born in 1940 as the eldest son of a scientist and educationist, Farruk earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in economics from the University of Dhaka, a master’s of science in agricultural economics from the Texas A&M University, and a doctoral degree in this field from Cornell University in New York.

Quality Education has always been a priority for UNESCO and its Member States. The International Conference on Education represents a unique occasion to discuss and explore ways to improve Quality of Education.

Quality Education is not limited only to acquiring skills and competencies in the respective areas of study. Rather it now enconspasses matters such as relevance to job market, inculcation of universal values, moral values, innovativeness and all other aspects of a good world citizen.

Like many other developing countries, education systems at all levels, particularly primary, secondary & pre-university levels have expanded significantly following the Jomtien & Dakar declarations. While access has increased, quality has suffered largely due to the systems' inability to provide the requisite number of well-qualified and trained teachers and syllabi & curricula that is consistent with the needs of a changing world. Paucity in resources has also hindered implementation of programs for addressing the above contraints to providing quality education.

Despite limited resources, Bangladesh has consistently devoted 15-20% of government budget to education in order to improve access and equity in the education system. To remove poverty as a barrier to access, primary education has been made free and compulsory; textbooks are provided free at government expense, food or cash stipends are provided at the secondary levels. Most importantly, girls' education has been made free up to the 12th class in addition to payment of monthly stipends. Nearly 5-6 million girls receive such stipends at an annual cost of over US$ 100, and we have achieved gender parity at the primary & secondary schools.

We are now concentrating on measures such as stricter teacher recruitment policies, expanded teacher training programs, improved teaching methods and material and financial and other incentives for teachers in order to improve teacher quality and motivation. Ministry of Education has been working to implement participatory teachinglearning methods in the secondary schools. For that purpose, many teachers from different disciplines have been trained up from different countries. The year 2003 was declared by the Honorable Prime Minister as the Year of Quality Education in order to demonstrate government's support for these efforts.

We hope UNESCO and other donor support will further increase for improving quality education in Bangladesh and in other developing countries.