When all countries of the world are engaged in a fierce competition to move their national
societies forward, Bangladesh ought not to lag behind by unduly promoting unproductive
education out of
narrow political considerations
To set the nation on a forward moving path
Samiul Haque
Without wanting to demean or malign, it can be said irrefutably that madrasha education in Bangladesh in general leaves a lot desired. If it had been otherwise, then it would not be considered as unfit to be recognised as a standard and appropriate form of education in the country. Everyone knows that the courses presently taught in the madrashas are largely based on the tenets of Islam, the practice of Islam and Islamic history, philosophy, law and related subjects. Of course changes have been incorporated in madrasha education in recent years . Science and vocational education have been incorporated in the system. Nonetheless, this system is trailing behind other systems of education on the whole.
I do recognize Madrasha education, absorbed seriously, can make its pupils austere practicing Muslims and well versed on Islam. Good Muslims are also needed in our society. However, good Muslims are found also among those who have had no masdrasha education but received formal and secular education in the sciences, commerce and the humanities.
The difference is that those who obtain higher degrees in the formal and mainstream education systems of the country are generally found to have fuller education with a relevance to societys needs. They can fill job slots in different economic sectors and can be counted as productive persons in their particular spheres whereas madrasha degree holders are mainly found to be suitable to serve mainly as prayer leaders. We surely need prayer leaders but there are probably enough of them and for meeting future needs there is no requirement to dot the countries with madrashas by denying funds to science and technology or other forms of education that only can create true human resources for ready economic application.
There is also the other aspect of madrasha education. The system appears to naturally breed Islamic militants or extremists. Many of them are being nabbed by dragnets of law enforcement bodies. Tracing the background of the arrested individuals, it could be seen that nearly all of them received madrasha education at some stage in their life or were connected to such institutions. Those who feel empathy for madrasha education would say that most of these centers of religious learning are not the reservoirs of terrorism. While this may be accepted with some reservation, the fact is that a large number of them have been found to be the breeding or training grounds of such militants. Thus, there is enough ground to generalise that this system of education can foster extreme behaviour .
Anyone with an open mind who cares to mingle with madrasha students cannot fail to note that they suffer from rigid mind-sets. The world, according to them, is a choice between black and white ; there cannot be room for any complexities. One has a choice to either share their world view of standing for Islam and wage jihad against the infidels or be condemned for not doing so.
This mental rigidity, failing to appreciate differences of opinion, belief and conduct, make the madrasha educated young ones ideal for use
as suicide bombers or for other forms of conduct that derive inspiration from extreme dogmatism or fanaticism that cannot accommodate in the
least any opposing thought or action. Persons soaked in madrasha education, therefore, are not
expected to be tolerant enough to appreciate the values of democracy, pluralistic societies, human rights and the art of live and let live which is the hallmark of all civilised, peaceful and progressive human societies.
All of the above is really re-stated by this writer because of his complete failure to find rationale in the decisions of the government to promote rather than regulate and discourage, madrasha education. But you cannot cure a disease for good by only treating its symptoms. The cure lies in recognising the cause of it and treating it at the source. When it has been amply recognised that madrashas are feeding the terrorists or helping to swell their ranks, in this situation, it is simply insensible to create conditions for further luxuriant growth of madrasha education. Reportedly, the number of general
educational institutions, which receive government funds, has increased by some 9.74 per cent against a 22.22 per cent growth of madrashas from from 2001 to 2012.
Madrasha graduates gaining recognition are expected to sit for public examinations or the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) examinations in great number. Some years ago they had no access to BCS exams as their degrees were not recognized. But now that the bar no longer remains, the
floodgates will open and many learners of madsrasha education will get the opportunity for entering the countrys civil services with their comparatively inadequate knowledge and typical mind-sets. On the one hand, after becoming civil servants they will not help the end of good governance any because of their sheer knowledge deficiency and, on the other, many of them can be expected to work behind the wings for the Islamic extremists to wage Islamic revolution or to Islamise the administration.
One understands that the decisions to promote madrasha education at this juncture was taken by the ruling party with an eye for the vote banks. It was calculated perhaps that such decisions will mean the Islamists in greater number voting for the AL and its alliance partners. But does the AL
really need to compromise on very vital areas of concern for the country to persuade some voters to vote for it?
The main opposition party, BNP, was founded in the late seventies. It could win elections in that period under President Zia and President Sattar without forging an alliance with a religion based party like the Jaamat. The first BNP government of Begum Khaleda Zia in the nineties also could form a government by its own strength . But now, the same BNP requires religion based parties like a crutch and seems headed to increase its reliance on such forces in the future. Some political analysts have expressed fears whether from such hobnobbing, the BNP and the moderates would be simply devoured by their extremist bedfellows at a point of time like what Frankestein did to his master.
It needs no special intellectual abilities to realise either that the ruling partys alleged and growing fraternity with Islamists is helping to build up a case that Bangladesh is turning into another staging area of Islamic terrorists like Afghanistan was at one time. The continuing promotion of madrasha education will only strengthen the argument of those who would want to point to the AL as also a patron of religion based politics and the consequent extremism.
Already, utterances of top ranking leaders in India have been noted that Bangladesh is turning into a country infested by Islamic terrorists who are endangering the security of India. This writer read an article by an American based in Dhaka who underlined that the US and India are having the same outlook as regards the growth of Islamic extremism under official patronisation in Bangladesh which could threaten the security of both India and USA. It was also alluded in that article that the US would probably find nothing disagreeable if India attacks Bangladesh militarily or invades it for a period to root out the extremists. Thus, time is more than ripe to consider what grave dangers to the security of Bangladesh are developing from giving encouragement to fanatical forces.
The writer is engaged in a research programme for Bangladesh Bureau of Education information and Statistics (BANBEIS)
