Report In The daily Star, Mar 11, 2017
The next generations will grow up on the footmark of Hefazat-e-Islami, a Qawmi madrassa-based organisation, if the communal things “inserted” in school textbooks were not removed.
The speakers of a discussion also demanded that the government should immediately discard all the communal elements from the textbooks.
“The poison of communalism is infusing into the children gradually. On one hand, the government says it will root out fundamentalism from the country; on the other, it brings changes to the textbooks following Hefazat’s demands. This will not work out,” said Rasheda K Choudhury, former adviser to a caretaker government.
“No-one will be able to stop several other incidents like Holey Artisan if communalisation of the textbooks continues,” she observed.
She was addressing the discussion following launch of a report on “Communalisation of Textbooks” investigated and published by the Citizens’ National Inquiry Commission at the capital’s WVA Auditorium.
Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Forum for Secular Bangladesh and Trial of War Criminals of 1971 jointly organised the programme.
Reading out the summary of the report, historian Muntassir Mamoon said the poem “Boi” written by Humayun Azad had been excluded from class V syllabus following Hefazat’s claim that it would discourage students from reading the holy Quran.
Pointing out another instance, he said Rabindranath Tagore’s poem “Bangladesher Hridoy” had been dropped from the textbooks of class VI.
This patriotic poem describes the beauty of the poet’s motherland, but the communal forces claim it praises a Hindu goddess.
Saying that madrassa education has been given more emphasis during the Awami League rule, Muntassir added, “At least in the education sector the daughter of Bangabandhu could not take a bold step like her father. The leaders and activists of the ruling party are influenced by communal trends.”
President of the Forum Shahriar Kabir said after establishing full control over madrassas, Hefazat is now concentrating on textbooks.
“The activities of Hefazat are not favourable to Islam. It is a political conspiracy to turn Bangladesh into Pakistan in the long run. In this way, the defeated Pakistani force is taking revenge of the Liberation War,” he added.
Former law minister Shafique Ahmed suggested that an education act be formulated in light of the spirit of the Liberation War and secularism.
http://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/get-rid-communal-content-textbooks-1374109
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