The government is going to close an education ministry project to establish a national academy for the children with autism and neurodevelopmental disabilities.
The project, which started 11 years ago and saw three revisions till now, spent Tk 94 crore and has made 20 per cent progress so far.
The academy began its activities at a limited scale at a rented house at Segunbagicha in Dhaka city in 2020. It has 42 students at present.聽
The decision came at a project evaluation committee meeting at the Planning Commission held on August 4 where project officials from the education ministry were present.
Some quarters concerned, including from the education ministry, however, do not want the project to close down, and have requested the Planning Commission not to shut it down in the middle of its implementation.
Education ministry officials said that the proposal for closing the project, which had the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education as it implementing agency, was awaiting some formalities.
The National Academy for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Project began in 2014 with an aim to promote the inclusion of the special needs children in the mainstream by developing their academic, vocational and life skills.
The project also included the establishment of a national academy with residential facilities for 200 children with special needs.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council on April 8, 2014 approved the project with duration from January 2014 to December 2016 at a cost of Tk 74.1 crore.
After the first revision, the project cost rose to Tk 350 crore, in the second revision it was raised to Tk 422.33 crore, and in the third it was increased to Tk 730.6 crore.
The project tenure was extended to December 2019 after the first revision, to December 2023 following the second revision, and lastly, to June 2027 following the third revision.
So far, under the project Tk 94.44 crore has been spent the overall breakdown of which covers鈥擳k 36.63 crore has been spent for acquiring 3.33 acre land in Purbachal area to build the permanent campus of the academy; Tk 26.67 crore for internal training for teachers and guardians; Tk 3.71 crore for training of master trainers; Tk 6.93 for awareness programmes鈥� Tk 2.73 crore for renting the temporary campus for the academy; Tk 2.71 crore for appointing consultants; and Tk 1.11 crore for vehicles for the project implementation unit.
Officials said that the increase in the project cost during revisions resulted from the inclusion of more components and price escalation of different products over the years.聽
The proposal to suspend the project came on September 29 last year at the 16th project steering committee meeting.
The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, however, was not in favour of closing the project.
On October 24, then director general of the directorate late professor ABM Rezaul Karim wrote to the Secondary and Higher Education Division with requests to continue the project by calling tender to build the academy鈥檚 permanent campus.
On February 2 this year, the Society for the Welfare of the Intellectually Disabled, Bangladesh, SWID Bangladesh in short, wrote to the directorate, requesting to continue the project work to facilitate the development of the people with special needs.聽
The project鈥檚 acting director Md Nurul Alom told 抖阴精品 on August 4 that at the project evaluation committee鈥檚 meeting decision was taken to stop the project.
鈥榃e were only implementing the project while the education ministry will take decision what will happen to the academy now,鈥� he added.
The Secondary and Higher Education Division鈥檚 acting secretary Md Mozibor Rahman told 抖阴精品 on Monday that the decision for its closure was taken due to its excessively sluggish pace of implementation.聽
If necessary, the ministry would consider undertaking a new project in this regard, he added.
