DHAKA — A Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami delegation met with Education Adviser Chowdhury Rafiqul Abrar on Monday and demanded the nationalization of all private educational institutions in the country and the inclusion of non-MPO teachers in the government pay scheme.
The meeting was held Monday, Aug. 4, at the Secretariat. The Jamaat delegation was led by Professor Mojibur Rahman, central naib-e-ameer of the party. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Mojibur Rahman said the delegation held what he called a productive nearly hour-long meeting with the adviser.
“Our first demand was that all private educational institutions and teachers in the country be nationalized,” he said. “Education is the backbone of nation-building, and teachers are the backbone of education. If teachers are weak, the nation cannot be built.”
He said the second demand was the quick inclusion of non-MPO teachers in the MPO pay scheme. Teachers who had been deprived for political reasons over the past 17 years must be given their rightful entitlements, he said, and pensions for retired teachers must also be arranged quickly. The delegation also demanded MPO inclusion for teachers of independent ebtedayi madrasas.
Mojibur Rahman said the party demanded that representatives of all types of educational institutions be included on the syllabus drafting committee. The delegation proposed forming a committee with representatives from every category of institution to draft a syllabus reflecting public expectations, he said.
The adviser listened carefully to the demands and said he would review them, Mojibur Rahman said. He expressed hope that the discussions would benefit the country and the nation. “The Bangladesh of the future will become a beautiful state, and through the Islamization of the education system, education will develop according to faith and creed,” he said. “It will also build the kind of education system needed to raise honest and enlightened people.”
Other members of the delegation included Shafiqul Islam Masud, former central president of Islami Chhatra Shibir and secretary of Dhaka Metropolitan South Jamaat, along with leaders of the Jamaat-backed Adarsha Shikkhok Forum.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report