Professor Dr M Shamsuddin Elias

Message

I took the opportunity to express my profound gratitude and heartfelt felicitation to the Executive Committee of the Bangladesh Psychological Association (BPA) for being able to organize the Psychology Conference 2018 within the stipulated time. I am thankful to the Department of Psychology, University of Dhaka, for extending sincere cooperation and co-hosting the “Psychology Conference” during 16-17 November 2018.
As we know, human behavior is very complex and proper study of behavior needs careful activities following scientific methodology; psychologists in Bangladesh are giving continuous efforts to address the human-behavioral issues in an indigenous manner. But social and policy issues are the main hindrances to promote Psychology and its applications to the solution of societal and behavioral problems. Educational policy makers are yet to grasp the essence of Psychology and its necessity to understand humans- who are actually the main architects behind all sorts of development activities. Importance of Psychology in the national curriculum and syllabus, particularly at the secondary and higher secondary levels are either neglected or deliberately overlooked. Students who are motivated and willing to take Psychology as a compulsory subject at higher secondary level are barred by the curriculum implementation policies. As Psychology is placed in the optional clusters students have minimum chance of taking psychology as a subject. Besides this, students in science group are sometimes discouraged by some college principals to take Psychology as an optional subject. These issues should immediately be resolved for proper disseminations of psychological knowledge for the sake of maintaining sound mental health and well-being of the people and thereby increasing national productivity. I welcome you all- the delegates attending the conference from home and abroad and contribute to make the conference an effective one.
I hope and believe that the conference will come up with specific and concrete recommendations through scholarly sharing of psychological knowledge.
I wish every success of the “Psychology Conference 2018” and congratulate you all to have such a nice gathering.

Professor Dr M Shamsuddin Elias