Korean Ambassador Lee Jang-keun on Monday (Aug 29) paid a call on Minister of Education, Dipu Moni and expresses his commitment to strengthen cooperation in the field of education.
Stressing the importance of education in realising the goals of Bangladesh's socio-economic development and highly recognizing the achievement of Bangladesh in the education of children and youth, Ambassador Lee briefed on the situation of various cooperation projects in the field of education between the two countries.
The Korean government has been implementing various programs in this sector such as assisting the capacity building of universities to promote youth entrepreneurship, establishing training and education centers in local upazilas, offering scholarship opportunities for Bangladesh youth to study in Korea and offering Korean language courses in collaboration with universities.
One of the major cooperation project currently undergoing in education field is the Youth Entrepreneurship Project with Dhaka University.
Through KOICA, Korea's development agency, with the project cost of 7.5 million US dollars, Korea is establishing a Entrepreneurship Education Center in Dhaka University and providing educational equipment and capacity building programs.
Another major ongoing project in education is the establishment of ICT Training and Resource Centers for Education in 160 Upazilas.
With the financial assistance of 60 million US dollars through EDCF, Korea's concessional loan, the project not only establish ICT centers but also develop educational contents and e-learning system and help capacity building of teachers by giving training programs in Korea.
Korea is becoming an increasingly preferred academic destination for Bangladesh youth.
At present, around 1,500 Bangladeshi students are studying in Korean universities most of them are with various scholarships opportunities including the GKS, Global Korea Scholarship, offered by the Korean government.
The number of the Bangladesh students in Korea continues to increase every year.
Under the GKS program, every year around 20 Bangladesh students are going to Korea for undergraduate or graduate studies.
Since 2011, 172 Bangladeshi students have benefited from the program, among which 137 were in graduate programs while 35 were in undergraduate programs.
The number of GKS candidates has increased from 8 students in 2011 to 18 this year (2022).
This year 18 Bangladesh students have the GKS opportunities, 14 for graduate studies and 4 for undergraduate.
All the GKS Bangladesh alumni are contributing actively to various sectors in Bangladesh, from universities, private or public companies to Korean investors and business companies in Bangladesh like Samsung, LG, and Hyundai.
In order to meet the growing interest and demand of learning Korean language among the Bangladesh youth, the Korean Embassy is working closely with various Bangladesh universities.
In addition to the Korean language program in Dhaka University, Independent University Bangladesh (IUB) and American International University Bangladesh (AIUB) will establish Korean language program this year through King Sejong Institute Foundation of Korea. IUB will also host Window on Korea in its library this year in which various books and multimedia materials on Korea will be available.
Ambassador Lee and Minister Moni also agreed to work closely together to make next year's 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Korean and Bangladesh an important milestone to elevate the two countries friendship into a higher level.
