, Nov. 10 -- President Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir on Tuesday called for sweeping reforms in the education sector, saying the country's education system and several important state institutions had been brought to the brink of destruction over the past one and a half decades.

The President made the remarks while addressing the 27th convocation of Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Exhibition Centre in Purbachal.

He said universities had been allowed to be established without proper scrutiny, resulting in the emergence of substandard institutions that produced highly educated unemployed people and pushed a large section of promising young people into frustration.

"Many universities were used as c...