NATIONAL dailies have reported that a reception to the State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock was accorded by keeping 209 schools of an upazila closed. Primary teachers’ association of Dumuria, with permission of the Upazila Education Officer, greeted the state minister Narayan Chandra Chanda, MP, with the reception on the Upazila Parishad premises.
The teachers, however, have defended their move. In their view, the schools were kept closed by a unanimous decision of all teachers. According to a leader of the association, this would count as a holiday taken from the quota reserved for teachers. However, as signatures were taken from all the teachers present at the program, suggestions have it that there might have been some form of tacit pressure to join the program.
Concerned government officials of the Education Department have also denied any guilt in keeping the schools closed and said they did not want to go against the wishes of all the teachers of the upazila. However, Dumuria Upazila Parishad Chairman and also the President of Upazila Primary School Committee, criticized this and said the program could have been arranged on a holiday. In a surprising move the reception was arranged on the premises of his office and he holds the highest post in the local primary school management committee as the upazila chairman, who is a local leader of a opposition party, was not invited to the program.
The entire incident harks back to the days of yore when overgenerous greetings would be thrown to a royal personage by grateful courtiers. Concerned citizens and educationalists are appalled by these sorts of practices which are not only jeopardizing education but also are constantly portraying politicians as demi gods. In fact, on the rise of this clearly politicized melodrama their concerns were apparently safeguarded by an official circular issued in 2009, which proscribed the closing of educational institutions and the lining up of students during any visit by high government functionaries. However, there is a loophole in the directive itself which has a provision that such programs may be held if it is “pre-approved”. Capitalizing on this loophole the “receptions” are going on and students and teachers of chiefly primary schools are paying the price.
This is not for the first time that a minister has been given such a high welcome after the official directives. Editorials in national dailies previously urged the MPs’ and ministers, as they were public representatives, not to allow such an event to happen in the first place that compromised the education of children.
Even if someone holds a public office, eminent citizens think, on what basis or according to which law they are allowed to shut down schools for a program which is essentially a political public relations campaign. Why school education would be compromised for partisan programs is still unanswered in our country.
