PM Tarique Rahman to make surprise visit to Education Assistance Trust

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is set to make a surprise visit to the Prime Minister's Education Assistance Trust in Dhanmondi at around 11am on Monday (August 24). A source at the Ministry of Education said the Prime Minister’s Office informed the ministry about the visit on Sunday morning. Following the notification, Education Minister Dr ANM Ehsanul Haque Milan and the secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division visited the Education Assistance Trust.

At least seven ministry officials have also visited the trust, according to a ministry official who spoke to The Daily Campus on condition of anonymity. “Officials from at least seven ministry departments have gone to the Education Assistance Trust. They are inspecting the overall situation there,” the official said.

According to information provided by the ministry source, the then prime minister Sheikh Hasina sent a written directive to the ministry on April 20, 2010, outlining plans to establish a trust fund for disadvantaged students.

The Planning Ministry submitted the final proposal for the trust fund to the Planning Commission on January 31, 2011. On March 6 that year, the ministry sent a semi-official proposal on the trust fund to the Ministry of Education.

The Cabinet approved the trust on December 12, 2011. The Prime Minister’s Education Assistance Trust Bill was subsequently passed by Parliament on March 11, 2012. In 2017, Bangladesh’s banks donated Tk 1.36 billion to the Prime Minister’s Education Assistance Trust, Suchona Foundation and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Trust, according to the information provided.

Between 2014 and 2017, 746,000 students received Tk 4.11 billion in education assistance, while 279,000 students received assistance from the Prime Minister’s Education Assistance Trust in 2018.