DHAKA- Prime Minister Tarique Rahman today said ensuring every child gets the opportunity to grow and develop properly is crucial to building a strong foundation for Bangladesh and making the country stronger in the today’s competitive world.
“Today’s children are the pillars of their families. If they can grow up properly, the foundation of their families will become stronger. Likewise, if we can provide all children across Bangladesh with opportunities to develop properly, the foundation of our country will become much stronger,” he said.
The Prime Minister was speaking in a discussion at Bangladesh Shishu Academy marking the Children’s Rights Day 2026 and the 50th anniversary of the academy.
Tarique Rahman said, “Making the future of today’s children strong means making the future of the nation strong. And a strong future for the nation means we will be able to build a strong and powerful Bangladesh.”
Addressing the children as his “little friends”, the Premier said children should not be confined only to academic studies, but should also be given opportunities to explore their talents in sports, arts, culture and music. He urged parents to recognise and nurture the individual qualities of their children instead of putting them under pressure to pursue only conventional academic activities.
“I want you to complete what I could not,” he told the children, recalling his own childhood interest in playing the guitar and keyboard. The Prime Minister said many children have talents in drawing, recitation, music, dance and other creative activities, and urged them to develop those talents fully.
He said the government wants children to have exposure to arts and culture alongside sports and music so that they can develop themselves according to their individual interests.
Tarique Rahman said the government has already taken initiatives to identify and develop children’s sporting talents, including a nationwide primary-level football competition in which around 22 lakhs boys and girls participated.
He expressed the hope that if such initiatives are continued, internationally acclaimed footballers and other sports talents would emerge from among the country’s children.
He also recalled the “Natun Kuri” programme introduced by Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman to promote children’s cultural talents, saying the programme has been revived alongside a sports-based “Natun Kuri” initiative.
“We want to build our children in such a way that a child will have good exposure to art and culture, become skilled in them, and similarly develop proficiency in music and sports,” he said.
The Prime Minister said many families, particularly those in remote and rural areas, cannot afford to provide children with opportunities for extracurricular activities.
“So, from the school level, we are trying to create facilities for arts, culture, sports and music so that every child can choose a subject according to his or her preference,” he said.
He said the government expects to begin the full process from 2027 or 2028, under which children at primary and secondary levels would have opportunities to learn music, play musical instruments and choose sports according to their interests.
The Prime Minister also announced plans to introduce opportunities for children to learn a third language in addition to Bangla and English, with options including Arabic, Mandarin, German and Japanese.
He said knowledge of an additional foreign language would help children in their future education and employment abroad and enable them to compete and survive more effectively in the global environment.
However, he stressed that academic, sporting, artistic or linguistic achievements alone would not be enough. “Children must also become humane,” he said, urging them to show compassion not only towards people but also towards nature, animals and birds.
Calling upon parents and guardians to instil a sense of responsibility towards the environment and other living beings in children, the Prime Minister said, “If we are kind to nature, nature will certainly be kind to us.”
The premier also urged children to care for trees and animals around their homes and schools and sought their cooperation in keeping the environment clean. He asked them to discourage adults from throwing garbage indiscriminately in public places.
“If you see an adult throwing garbage or waste somewhere and harming the environment, you can tell them to put it in the proper place,” he said.
Tarique Rahman said a clean environment would help children grow up in a healthy environment and become physically and mentally healthy people.
He called on all sections of society to work together to build the country saying the task does not necessarily require major efforts but can be achieved through small, collective actions.
“We will build this country ourselves. If we want to build the country, all of us must work together,” he said.
The Prime Minister also recalled visiting the academy as a child with his younger brother and parents- Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman and Begum Khaleda Zia- at the time of its inauguration.
He said he also found some of his and his younger brother’s writings displayed at the academy, taking him back five decades in his memories.
Prime Minister’s wife and Vice-President of the Ziaur Rahman Foundation Dr Zubaida Rahman also addressed the event, chaired by Women and Children Affairs Minister Prof Dr. A Z M Zahid Hossain.
Earlier, 150 children welcomed the Prime Minister when he arrived at Bangladesh Shishu Academy premises. Later, the programme began with the national anthem.
Following the discussion, the Prime Minister enjoyed a cultural event performed by children and visited the children’s drawings and a photo exhibition gallery.
