DHAKA: Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid has been elected as vice-president of 38th session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) General Conference.

He was elected in the ongoing general conference of the UN body which is taking place at its headquarters in Paris from November 3 to 18.

Education ministry deputy secretary Subodh Chandra Dhali disclosed the matter to banglanews.

Bangladesh will serve as the vice-president of UNESCO General Conference for the terms of 2015-2017.

However, the minister is currently leading Bangladesh delegation in the ongoing conference, he added.

Nahid also addressed the 38th Session of the ongoing conference as the head of Bangladesh delegation.

In his speech the education minister urged the organisation and the leaders across the world to adopt a comprehensive approach to education that ensures inclusive, equitable and quality education at all levels.

Referring to the success of the Education for All (EFA), Education for International Understanding (EIU) and Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) initiated by UNESCO, he said that education is not just a stand-alone goal in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

“It is also a cross-cutting theme that will underpin many other SDGs and targets like achieving gender equality and empowerment of women, job creation for youths, produce global citizens that contributes to world peace and fight extremism, and build resilient societies against climate change and natural calamities”, he added.

The minister further said, “The failure to addressing those issues properly will certainly hamper achieving SDGs in stipulated time”.

He also persuaded the world communities to address all these issues in a strict sense by reaching a consensus to tackle climate change impact in the United Nation's Conference on Climate Change (COP 21), which is going to take place in Paris end of this month.

The Bangladesh delegation includes Shahidul Islam, ambassador and permanent delegation of Bangladesh to UNESCO and Md Monjur Hossain, secretary of the Bangladesh National Commission for UNESCO (BNCU).

Ministers and senior officials of 195 member states, eight associate members and various UN agencies, media and NGO's attended the conference.

BDST: 2102 HRS, NOV 04, 2015
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