Ensure quality of madrasa education

The present state of madrasa education will not help flourish intelligentsia in the society if it does not focus on knowledge-based education, speakers at a programme said yesterday.

Reading Club Trust and Gyantapas Abdur Razzaq Foundation organised its 27th monthly solo lecture, titled “The Evolution of Muslim Intelligentsia in Bengal in the Late 19th and Early 20th Century” at RC Majumdar Auditorium of Dhaka University.

The government recognised the highest degree offered by non-government Qawmi madrasas as equivalent to postgraduate degree recently.

Prof Tazeen M Murshid, a former visiting scholar at Columbia University, New York, said alongside recognising madrasa education, it has to be ensured that its standard is equivalent to other education systems.

“Sometime the government takes decision on political grounds, whether it is for the future and development of the country or not,” she said, while responding to a query after the lecture.

The government can form a committee to oversee the equivalency procedure to this end, she suggested.

In her lecture, Prof Tazeen said flourishing of Muslim intelligentsia between the late 19th and early 20th century was related to emerging of a new middle class in Bengal.

This class emerged due to a favourable policy of the then colonial rulers, who were in need of a close ally to continue their ruling, she added.

Chairing the programme, Dr Golam Murshid, chief editor of Bangla Academy's “Bibortonmulok Bangla Obhidhan”, said the present state of madrasa education may help students get jobs while many poor students will also be benefited due to cost-free education.

However, will it add any quality [to the overall education system of the country]? he questioned.