Staff Reporter
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman yesterday 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 yesterday’s competitive world.
“Yesterday’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 yesterday’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 crea-tive 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” program introduced by Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman to promote children’s cultural talents, saying the program 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.
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 upon 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.
Following the discussion, the Prime Minister enjoyed a cultural event performed by children and visited the children’s drawings and a photo exhibition gallery.
