Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has said his recent remarks were about tradition of bribery at education directorate during BNP regime, not during Awami League rule.
Amid huge criticisms over his remarks, the minister held a press conference at his ministry on Wednesday to clarify his position.
He also termed the media reports on his remark as 'partial' and 'baseless'.
"Some eminent people have raised question against me based on the partial and groundless report ran by a few media outlets," Nurul Islam Nahid said.
The minister also said "You are familiar with my sincerity, ideology, principle and honesty, I would appreciate if you could ask me directly, without passing comments."
He said incumbent government managed to minimise the corruption level in the education sector significantly through For different positive initiatives.
"In Bangladesh, the corruption rate in education sector is 12 per cent while the worldwide average rate of corruption is 17 per cent," the minister said.
He also expressed hope to bring it down to zero level.
The Directorate of Inspection and Audit (DIA) is more transparent than in the past, he added.
On Sunday, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid attended a certificate distribution ceremony of the DIA as the chief guest.
According to UNB, while speaking at the function, the minister referred to a situation of eight years back and described the scenario of corruption and irregularities among the DIA officials at that time.
Earlier on Monday, the Education Ministry explained its position over the report carried by a number of newspapers and online portals over the bribe issue saying that the reports made a scope for some misunderstandings.