The call came at a seminar on 'Strengthening the Global Research Cycle' held at Arts Faculty of Dhaka University (DU) recently and organised by Bangladesh Association of Young Researchers (BAYR), a research organisation supported by teachers of DU and other public and private universities of the country.
Speakers at the seminar mentioned that Tk 19,837 crore was proposed for education sector in the current budget (2011-2012), 10% up from the previous fiscal year's Tk 17,959 crore which is not as high as was expected, and nothing was proposed for research which is an important part of education.
A substantial increase in education and a separate fund for research should be proposed in the budget for 2012-2013 fiscal, they suggested.
Calling to earmark a big amount for research in the forthcoming national annual budget academics at the seminar said that research is an integral part of education and it is quite impossible to enhance the quality of the country's education without allocating sufficient money for research in budget.
Nafiz Zaman Shuva, assistant professor of Department of Information Science and Library Management at DU, demanded of the government to establish full-fledged computer laboratories at different departments of public universities and building nationwide digital libraries for quality research and development.
"If sufficient fund is allocated for education and research every year in the country's annual budget Bangladesh will be leading research activities in South Asia soon", he said.
Nafiz, also BYAR president, requested UGC to take initiatives to build institutional repositories at all public universities immediately.
Dr. Rokonuzzaman of Department of Information Science and Library Management, Dr Taposh Devnath of Department of Chemistry, ATM Shamsuzzoha and Mahmudur Rahaman of Islamic History and Culture, Anamul Haque of Music Department and Mustafa Monjur, faculty member of DU, among others, attended and spoke.