Dhaka: Amid huge criticisms for his reported recent remark on bribe, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Wednesday clarified his position and termed the media reports on his remark as ‘partial’ and ‘baseless’.

At a press briefing at the Education Ministry auditorium around 1 pm, the minister said, ‘I was narrating the tradition of bribery at the education directorate during BNP regime, not during Awami League rule.’

‘Some eminent people have raised question against me based on the partial and groundless report ran by a few media outlets. With due respect, I want to say- you are familiar with my sincerity, ideology, principle and honesty, I would appreciate if you could ask me directly, without passing comments.’

‘For different positive initiatives of the incumbent government, we managed to minimize the corruption level in the education sector significantly. In Bangladesh, the corruption rate in education sector is 12 percent while the worldwide average rate of corruption is 17 percent. And we are working to bring it down to zero level,’ he said.

The Directorate of Inspection and Audit (DIA) is more transparent than in the past, he added.

Earlier on Monday, the Education Ministry explained its position over the report carried by a number of newspapers and online portals over the bribe issue saying that the reports made a scope for some misunderstandings.

The Education Ministry said the reports were presented considering old information and evaluation related to the DIA as the latest position.

‘This is (report) unfortunate, confusing and contradictory to the Education Minister’s basic speech and goes against the current policy of the Education Ministry,’ said a PID handout.

On Sunday, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid attended a certificate distribution ceremony of the DIA as the chief guest.

While speaking at the function, the minister referred to a situation of eight years back and described the scenario of corruption and irregularities among the DIA officials at that time, the PID handout added.