A total of 37.2 million (3.72 crore) illiterate people of the country aged between 11 and 45 years will be turned into skilled human resources by introducing basic literacy programme and imparting training on varied trades by next five years, reports BSS.

The illiterate groups have been selected from 456 upazilas of 64 districts including three Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), according to a survey on Mapping of Non-formal Activities of Bangladesh, conducted with joint support of the government, NGOs and donor agencies.

Bureau of Non-Formal Education (BNFE) has taken a five year (2009-2014) project dubbed 'Basic Literacy and Continuing Education (BLCE) to execute the plan, the BNFE sources said Thursday.

Under the project, approximately 1.2 million teachers, who passed SSC examinations would be appointed for giving education on subjects like Bangla, Arithmetic and English to the 37.2 million illiterate people six days a week.

Director General of the BNFE Rezaul Quader said more than 0.6 million education centres will be set up across the country for learners with maximum accommodation of 30 learners in each shift and two teachers will be engaged per shift.

After six months of teaching, 40 per cent of the total learners will be selected as potential groups and they would be taken for three months training on different trades subject to district-wise demands such as food processing, cow rearing, tailoring, house wearing, mushroom and apiary, said Quader.