A commission the government set up in April 2012 has for the first time proposed the adoption of qoumi education policy and recommended that the government should recognise qoumi certificates and set up a university for quomi education.
The qoumi madarassah education commission, composed of Islamic scholars, in the proposed education policy recommended a six-stage qoumi education, from primary to master’s level, and recommended the establishment of institutions manned by women for girls’ education, education ministry officials said.
The policy proposal said that existing qoumi madrassashs will neither allow any government control over them nor receive any financial help from the government.
They will not allow any government interference in the qoumi curriculum and syllabus that are based on Islam.
The 17-member commission, headed by Shah Ahmad Shafi of Hathazari Darul Uloom Mainul Islam Madrassah, has submitted the report to the education ministry in February.
The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid, told New Age that some commission members had a meeting with him early March.
The policy also detailed the curriculum and syllabus in line with Darul Uloom Deoband, leaving untouched characteristics of the century-old qoumi madrassahs in Bangladesh.
The commission also followed directives given by Shah Ahmad Shafi, who is director general of the Hathazari Darul Uloom Madrassah and also chief of Hefajat-e-Islam.
The commission since its establishment has not held a single meeting so far, commission members said. Some members applied to the government seeking an allocation of Tk 5 crore for meetings and other allowances for members.
Three of the members also wanted to visit India and Saudi Arabia to gather knowledge on qoumi madrassahs and give input to the education policy, the members said.
The Prime Minister’s Office in 2012 ordered the ministry concerned to sanction the amount but there has been no progress in this direction till date. Some commission members, however, opposed the move for seeking government fund for the commission.
In February 2010, the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence in a report recommended that the government should set up a qoumi Islami university, ministry officials said.
‘A delegation composed of an education affairs director of the US embassy and MA Hye, an initiator of Bangladesh Quomi Islami University have recently visited Jameya Al Islamiya Patiya in Chittagong to examine the feasibility for modernising the qoumi education system,’ the report titled Madrassah Education in Bangladesh said.
Towards the end of the BNP-led alliance government, the then prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on August 21, 2006 announced that the dawra degree of qoumi madrassahs would be regarded equal to the Master of Arts degree in Islamic studies or Arabic literature.
The announcement came in response to agitation by various Islamist groups such as Islami Oikya Jote, a partner in the then BNP-led alliance, although intelligence reports say that hundreds of qoumi madrassahs ‘recruit and train Islamist militants.’
The law minister, Shafique Ahmed, of the Awami League on April 1, 2009 told newsmen that the government wanted to bring all madrassahs under a policy guideline by registering them. Shafique termed qoumi madrassahs ‘breeding grounds for militancy.’
Echoing the law minister’s announcement, the education minister several times in April 2009 announced that the government would not allow any qoumi, noorani and hafezia madrassah without being registered. Immediately after the announcement, Nahid faced a threat from qoumi madrassah teachers that said that such institutions would not allow any government control.
According to education ministry statistics, the number of qoumi, noorani, hafezia, noorani ahle hadith and maktab madrassahs, which are unregistered and not recognised, is about 25,000 but the government has no statistics on the students and teachers. According to qoumi madrassah teachers, there are about 15 lakh students and teachers in such schools.
The proposed qoumi education policy, a copy of which New Age has obtained, said that the implementation of the commission recommendations should begin in July 2013.
The commission proposed five-year primary education named ibtediyah, three-year junior secondary named mutaowasistah, secondary education equivalent to SSC named sanabiya ammah, higher secondary education equivalent to HSC named sanabiyah khassah and marhalatul fazilat equivalent to bachelor’s (honours). Marhalatul Takmil will be equivalent to dawra-e-hadith equivalent to a master’s degree, according to the proposed policy. It also proposed one-year pre-primary education and higher research for qoumi students.
The education policy proposed that all the existing qoumi education boards should be given the authority to evaluate and recognise qoumi education up to higher secondary courses.
It proposed the recognition of five independent qoumi education boards across the country and the boards will maintain coordination among them.
The boards will be Befaqul Madarasil Arabia Bangladesh in Dhaka, Ittehadul Madarish Chittagong, Azad Deeni Edaraye Talim Bangladesh in Sylhet, Tanjimul Madarasil Uttarbanga and Befaqul Madarasil Qoumia Gowhardanga in Gopalganj.
It proposed an independent qoumi university fully controlled by qoumi scholars. The university will oversee higher education upholding characteristics of the existing education offered by the madrassahs.
The education policy proposed the establishment of Bangladesh Qoumi Madrassah Education Authority for an interim period before the Quomi University is set up to oversee examinations of Marhalatut Takmil (bachelor’s). (
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