52 students win language competition

The speaker said one cannot be a true patriot without loving one's own language.

They called on the students to foster love and affection for the language.

HSBC Bank and the Prothom Alo, a leading Bangla daily, jointly organised the competition at the Residential Model School and College (RMSC) in the city.

About 400 students, who earlier competed at district levels, were qualified for the final competition. They sat for Multiple Choice Questions test on Bangla grammar and language. Among them, 52 students in four categories won prizes in the final round.

Md Nuruzzaman of Rangpur Government School secured first position at higher secondary level while Iftekhar Alam Khan of Mymensingh Zila School stood first at the secondary school level. Sheikh Rahat Rahman of Rangpur Zila School grabbed the top position at the lower secondary and Rafin Rahman Turja of Government Laboratory School came first at primary school level.

Eminent writer Prof Muhammad Zafar Iqbal and writer Bashir Al Helal distributed prizes among the winners.

Addressing the students, Prof Iqbal said you people are lucky, as you got a chance to learn your language at this tender age, which is very important and difficult at the same time.

Earlier, Prof Nurunnahar Begum, principal of the RMSC, along with Prof Anisuzzaman of Dhaka University, inaugurated the function by hoisting the national flag.

Prof Zaman said you need to love your mother tongue first if you want to be a good human being.

Anisul Haque, assistant editor of the Prothom Alo, and Arun Basu conducted the programme.

Bishwajit Ghosh, professor of Dhaka University, Dr Vishotdev Chowdhury, Sazzad Sharif, assistant editor of the Prothom Alo, Mostafizur Rahman and Mamun Mahmud Shah of HSBC Bank, and ABM Jalaluddin, vice principal of the RMSC also spoke.

The Close-up stars Abid, Mahadi and Rumi performed on the occasion.