The Cabinet on Tuesday endorsed the draft laws to establish two rural development academies in Jamalpur and Rangpur districts in a bid to ensure sustainable development of the rural people in the respective regions.
The draft laws titled “Sheikh Hasina Palli Unnayan Academy, Jamalpur Act-2022” and “Sheikh Russel Palli Unnayan Academy, Rangpur Act-2022” were approved in the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office here.
“These (two academies) were approved to improve the standard of living for the rural communities,” said Cabinet Secretary Kabir Bin Anwar told reporters at a post-meeting briefing at Bangladesh Secretariat.
The functions of the academies include conducting research; taking joint programmes in collaboration with local and international research firms and educational institutions on approval of the government; and introducing different courses over rural development, including post-graduate diploma courses, graduate diploma courses and certificate courses, he said.
The two rural development academies will run under two separate 21-member governing boards to be headed by the Minister or the State Minister for Rural Development and Cooperatives Division as their chairman, he added.
Besides, the Cabinet approved the draft of National Skills Development Policy, 2022 (NSDP 2022) with a vision to build a demand-driven skilled workforce for accelerating the country’s economic growth.
“The policy has been designed on the basis of our visions to enhance skills (of the country’s workforce) and ensure the standard of their skills,” said Kabir.
He said the policy was approved to keep up and accelerate the country’s economic growth by turning its manpower into a skilled workforce.
The objectives of the policy include the use of digital system everywhere, to encourage professional training, to increase the employability of the people of disadvantaged areas and the marginalised communities, to implement mutual recognition agreement (MRA) for skills development and job placement, to strengthen industry- institute linkage for demand-driven skills development and job placement, he said.
