IT is a laudable effort by the government to set up and operate one Technical Training Centre in each district. Implementation of the programme is going on. Bangladesh needs trained vehicle drivers to bring down the number of accidents on roads. The Ministry of Road Transport and Bridges requested the Ministry of Education to introduce a 360-hour basic motor driving course. Accordingly Bangladesh Technical Education Board instructed 64 technical schools and colleges in 64 districts to introduce basic motor driving training course. The decision is under implementation and I would like to request the Technical Education Board to introduce the following curriculum for the course:
(a) driving a vehicle,
(b) traffic rules and regulations,
(c) preliminary knowledge on automobile parts,
(d) personal, family and social consequences of accidents and
(e) spoken English.
According to a recent study, road accidents alone cost Bangladesh one to two per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP). Road mishaps claimed 3,137 lives, on an average, annually between 2002 and 2012. About 5,162 people were killed in road accidents in 2013 alone as recorded by Nirapd Sarak Chai, a movement to ensure road safety. It is therefore vital that driving course should be introduced in all Technical Training Centres on an urgent basis.
Md. Ashraf Hossain
120 Central Bashabo, Dhaka-1214 ([email protected])
