Bangladesh has a peculiar education system which is full of division, discrimination, conflict and contradiction. Some of the students are getting favours for government jobs while others are being clearly discriminated. Subjects, methods, styles and syllabus fundamentally differ from one institution to other. What have been taught in conventional schools and colleges are totally absent in Qawmi Madrasa and vice versa. Similarly, what have been taught at Fazil and Kamil courses of Alia Madrasa are almost absent in Degree and Masters courses of traditional universities and vice versa. Bangladesh has mainly three types of education system: conventional or traditional system, English medium system and Madrasa (religious education) system. Madrasa system is again divided into two major separate camps: Alia Madrasa and Qawmi Madrasa. While Alia Madrasa is partially recognised by the government, Qawmi Madrasa is totally separate and is not recognised or accredited by the government at all. Under the conventional and traditional system of education, students after passing the Secondary School Certificate (SSC) usually go on to colleges to study and pass the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC). Some students after passing the SSC go to technical colleges to do vocational training course of three years and then qualify as Diploma Engineers. Having completed the SSC and HSC, students generally go to the traditional Universities or University Colleges to complete the conventional Degrees and Masters. A tiny of them, after completing their Masters, do MPhil or PhD research at the universities within the country or go abroad. Some students, on the completion of their HSC, are recruited in the defence or discipline forces (i.e. army, air force and navy), but this number is not significant. Like general universities, country’s engineering, science and agricultural universities follow more or less the same patterns. There are notable number of English medium schools in Bangladesh which follow foreign, particularly British, secondary and higher secondary level syllabus. Generally, students from at least middle class or upper middle class and/or higher class background study at those institutions, for these are private institutions and their fees are sky high. Instead of the SSC and HSC, the students study GCSE (former O level) and A level. After completing their GCSE and A level, they have three options ahead: either they go to the mainstream universities to do Degrees and Masters, or they take higher education at local affiliated educational institutes of foreign universities and colleges, or they go abroad for higher education at foreign universities. Alia Madrasa is one of the prominent lines of religious education in Bangladesh where hundreds of thousands of students are being educated. In this system, there are four conventional stages: Dakhil (equivalent to the SSC), Alim (equivalent to the HSC), Fazil (supposed to be equivalent to the Degrees) and Kamil (supposed to be equivalent to the Masters). The government recognises the first two stages, i.e. Dakhil and Alim. In fact, the students at Dakhil and Alim levels, in addition to one or two religious subjects, study exactly the same subjects and follow the same syllabus that the students at SSC and HSC study. However, the government does not recognise the other two stages: Fazil and Kamil. As a result, the Alia Madrasa students who have completed Fazil and/or Kamil cannot appear to the Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) Exams, the most prestigious central rigorous assessment – conducted by the Public Service Commission (PSC), a constitutional body – to recruit cadres for civil service. So, in order to be qualified for the BCS Exams or other government jobs, the students of Alia Madrasa – after completing their Dhakil and Alim – need to complete their Degrees and/or Masters at traditional universities or colleges. Most of the Alia Madrasa students do double studies: either they study Fazil and Kamil simultaneously while they complete their Degrees and Masters at traditional universities or colleges hiding one authority of their other studies with other one or they first complete Fazil and Kamil and then they go to complete the Degrees and/or Masters at traditional universities and colleges. Those who first complete the Fazil and Kamil and then go to complete the Degrees and/or Masters probably lose their chance to compete for the fierce competitive BCS Exams due to the age restriction (the maximum age limit for appearing the BCS Exams for general cadres is 30 and for some specific professions is 33). Although the government recognises the Dakhil and Alim as the equivalent to the SSC and HSC, the Alia Madrasa students face apparent discrimination when they go to complete their further education at the prestigious university like University of Dhaka. Due to some intentional restrictions put mainly to stop Madrasa students, Alia Madrasa students cannot enrol in some subjects (such as, English, International Relation, Arts etc) at Dhaka University. Thie matter was challenged at the High Court more than once and the High Court gave its ruling in favour of Madrasa students by saying that the restrictions are discriminatory and unconstitutional. Despite this, there has not been much improvement in this respect. The University authority has still been trying to put other indirect barriers. Furthermore, there have been some reports of discrimination in recruiting teachers of the universities. In spite of being the first class first, Madrasa students are often superseded and students with comparatively lower calibre are recruited as teachers of universities. Unless the University authority changes their mindset, the discrimination cannot be eliminated. Qawmi Madrasa is also another prominent line of religious education where hundreds of thousands of students are being educated. They are separated and segregated from the mainstream education of Bangladesh. Their educational resources and syllabus are strictly controlled and restricted by their own ancestors who were educated from the same line of institutions. Modern history, science, arts and international affairs are not taught there. The certificates of the Qawmi Madrasah are not recognised by the government at all. No matter how competent an applicant is or what level he has studied, a Qawmi Madrasha educated person cannot apply any government jobs, let alone competing for the prestigious BCS Exams. Entering to the defence or discipline forces for them is out of question. Their only career prospects would be to teach at the Madrasa or mosque in their own line. Again not all of them get this chance. A Qawmi Madrasa educated person cannot get a job in Alia Madrasa, another line of religious education! The numbers of Qawmi Madrasa graduates are rising year by year, but at the same time vacancies even in their own sector are not rising. As a result, a huge number of them are gradually becoming unemployed. In such a situation, they can easily fall in the hands of extremist groups who can, in turn, mislead and exploit. It should be noted that the students studying GCSE and A Level so similar overseas courses predominantly follow the foreign syllabus. They are not taught the syllabus of the SSC and HSC at all. Yet, they can apply to the traditional universities for Degrees and Masters and even compete for the prestigious BCS Exams. This chance, facility and opportunity are completely closed to Qawmi Madrasa students and partially closed to Alia Madrasa students. The current education system has made hundreds of thousands of Qawmi Madrasa educated students unemployed and unproductive. They have been alienated and led to live on the circle of a ‘ghetto environment.’ The current system has also compelled many Alia Madrasa educated students to do double study (especially in relation to the Fazil and Kamil) and made victims of discrimination in various levels, such as entrance to the prestigious universities for highly desirable subjects, university teacher recruitment, defence recruitment and appointment to some government jobs. Conventionally, Bangladesh has two types of universities: public universities and private universities. Public universities are almost fully funded by the government. Thus, its fees are nominal. Students from middle class and working class backgrounds can easily afford. However, destructive student politics and partisan teacher politics have severely damaged the education environment of public universities. Session jam has been a norm at each and every public universities resulting in three years honours course being completed in 5/6 years and one year masters course being completed in 2/3 years! Western world may be familiar with traffic jam, but certainly they are not familiar with session jam! With traffic jam, session jam is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. Private universities are established and funded by individual or individuals and/or corporate bodies. There has been mushroom growth of private universities in the last decade or so. Although few private universities have national and international reputation, most of the private universities lack credibility and reliability. They simply do not have resources, facilities and environment required for a university. They have mainly been set up as a business venture. There has been some allegation of certificate selling against some private universities. The University Grants Commission (UGC) – a regulatory body entrusted to regulate, accredit and oversee universities. They have been failed to regulate the universities properly. As a result, there has been an alarming degradation and devaluation of higher education in Bangladesh. ConclusionEducation is the backbone of a nation. It is the education through which citizens of the country are taught, educated and built up for the future. Faulty, divisive, discriminatory and contradictory education cannot produce good citizens, let alone taking the country forward. Many Commissions on Education have been set up by the successive governments since the independence of Bangladesh. But those Commissions were set up for ill political and ideological motives. Thus, those Commissions have failed to address the above division, discrimination, conflict and contradiction persistent within the country’s education system. Instead of eradicating the above division, discrimination, conflict and contradiction, the previous Commissions appeared to be keen to shape and give education and its policy an ideological colour, such as secular education or education based on socialism. That has alienated vast number of the religious people of the country. The current education systems have failed to produce good citizens on the one hand and it has also caused brain drain to hundreds of thousands of Madrasa students on the other hand. This is very unfortunate for the country. ProposalIn order to introduce broadly unified education system, eliminate apparent discrimination, and utilising all students’ talents and making them asset for the nation, the following proposals are put forward:1. A high powered Commission on Education System should be set up with non-political educationalists and intellectuals with a view to make a broadly unified education system and eradicate discrimination. 2. 70% to 80% non ideological and non political core subjects (such as Language and Literature, Maths, Science, Geography, Respective Religion etc.) should be included as compulsory subjects in the syllabus of all education systems, be it traditional or religious education. Rest of the 20% to 30% should be left to the individual/respective system to make and/adopt as per their needs and ideologies.3. Effective measures should be taken to eliminate discrimination at entrance level of the traditional universities and government/public jobs. All students, regardless of their background, should be treated fairly and equally. Appointment, entrance and promotion should be made purely and strictly based on merit and talent. 4. An immediate transitional step as well as long term plan should be taken to engage all Madrasa students in general and Qawmi Madrasa students in particular in productive activities and nation building ventures. 5. The UGC should be reconstituted with impartial and non political but dynamic personalities. It should be strengthen and given more power so that it can properly regulate and oversee universities in general and private universities in particular.6. Teachers’ party politics should be banned outright. At the same time, step should be taken to ban student politics at least for a short term (say, for example, for two years or five years) as a test case to decide whether it should be banned for good. (Barrister Nazir Ahmed: a UK based Legal expert, analyst, writer and columnist. He can be contacted via e-mail: ahmedlaw2002 @yaho.co.uk) (Views and opinions expressed here are are personal, not of the newspaper-Ed)
