Teacher exposes his dark side

Tajalli Bin AzadStaff Correspondent, Ctg

A question paper casting aspersion on the religious sentiment and knowledge of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina triggered strong resentments and protests among students, teachers and conscientious people in the port city.

The question paper in Islamic Studies for class eight in the annual examination at City Government Girls' High School was viewed as sarcastic and provocative, and intended to give a wrong message about the prime minister to the students.

Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) Chittagong city unit brought out a procession and laid a siege to the school at Ice Factory Road demanding immediate punitive action against the teacher who set the question-- Tajalli Bin Azad.

High officials of the district administration and Department of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education rushed to school and asked the school authorities to take instant steps against the teacher.

Headmistress of the school Sucharita Das filed a case with Double Mooring thana, and police arrested Tajalli.

The school authorities are also going to take departmental action including suspension of the teacher.

Sources said the question paper for the examination held on Thursday reads: Hasina and (leader of the opposition) Khaleda are two friends. Both are sitting in front of a television set. By this time, there was Azan for Maghrib prayers. Khaleda made Odu and went to say her prayers. But Hasina kept on watching the TV. Later, when Khaleda asked Hasina about the reason behind her not saying prayers, Hasina said, "I did not go (to say prayers) because my mind did not prompt me."

Khaleda said, "Why won't we have to do Jihad (fight) against evil counsel of mind'. In fact, Jihad has much more importance."

The other questions were --What is called Jihad; What is the last level of Jihad; According to Khaleda, how Hasina can declare Jihad -- explain; Explain the importance of Jihad in the light of Quran and Hadith.

As the school was closed for weekend immediately after the examination, some guardians complained to the headmistress about the question paper.

Contacted, she said since the hand-written question paper was put in a packet and sent to the press for printing to avoid question leak. So, they could not check the content of the question paper.

Asked about this, Headmaster of nearby Chittagong Collegiate School Md Aziz Uddin said, "Even if (official identities of) the prime minister and opposition leader were not mentioned in the question paper, the intention was obviously bad."

Meanwhile, Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) Md Zakir Hossain asked the school authorities to submit a report on the matter to the deputy director of secondary and higher secondary education, Chittagong.