Country's education still lacks uniformity
Language Movement veteran Ahmad Rafique yesterday expressed frustration at policymakers' “failure” to develop a uniform system to run the country and provide education even over four decades past achieving independence.
“It has been many years since we came out of the tyrannies of the British and Pakistanis. But our education system is still divided into general, English and madrasa,” he told an international seminar on the thoughts of Rabindranath Tagore on education. Khamkheyali Sabha, an association for poets, writers, singers and actors, organised the seminar in the capital's Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy.
Chairing the programme, the noted poet said it was difficult to remove the disparity among the education systems since the response from the masses was inadequate.
After independence, a particular group has been ruling the country using a system not different from that of the British and Pakistanis, he observed, adding, “Democracy could not be established properly yet. Bangla could not be used everywhere.” “We have taken Bangla as the state language in our constitution. But our education and ruling system cannot accept it as the mandatory medium yet,” he said. People are still being motivated by the impact of a “royal language” despite Bangla having a golden history, he said, adding that it was urgent to be self-educated to bring real changes to society. “Rabindranath had kept science above all types of education. He was a pragmatic person as well as a spiritualist,” Rafique added.
Prof Biswajit Ghosh of Dhaka University said, “A child is taught to differentiate people based on the belief of religion. Religion is not a thing to be taught rather to be followed.”
Prof Shoaib Gibran of Bangladesh Open University, Prof Auvro Bashu from the Visva-Bharati university, former Jahangirnagar University teacher Prof Shafi Ahmed and Khamkheyali Sabha Convener Mahmud Hashim also spoke.
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