Bangladesh Government Exempts Madrassahs From Honoring Ekushey (Language Day) ..... Re: Weeklong indigenous performing art festival begins
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Bangladesh Government Exempts Madrassahs From Honoring Ekushey
(Language Day) .....
http://www.newagebd.com/2007/feb/21/front.html#e
New Age, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Madrassahs not asked to observe Amar Ekushey
Education secretary terms ministry circular sabotage
By Siddiqur Rahman Khan
The education ministry asked all the educational institutions, except
for madrassahs, across the country to hoist the national flag at half-
mast today to mark Ekushey February, national martyrs' day.
The day is also observed as International Mother Language Day after
UNESCO on November 17, 1999 declared it an international event in
recognition of the 1952 movement.
The ministry in its February 5 circular in this regard kept
madrassahs out of the purview of the official order. 'All schools,
colleges and universities have been asked to hoist the national flag
at half-mast on February 21.'
The ministry failed to give any reasons for excluding the
madrassahs. The madrassahs usually do not observe the day, said Jainul
Abedin, principal of Tamirul Millat Kamil Madrassah, funded by the
Jamaat-e-Islami charity trust.
The education secretary, M Momtajul Islam, on Tuesday denied
issuing such a circular signed by a senior assistant secretary, who,
however, termed it 'absolutely an inadvertent mistake.'
'This may be an act of sabotage,' said the secretary, who has been
posted to the ministry since January 2006.
The chiefs of a number of schools, colleges and universities in
different parts of Bangladesh confirmed over telephone that they had
received the circular, which had also been sent to the University
Grants Commission, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education and
the Directorate of Technical Education.
The primary schools, which are governed by the primary and mass
education ministry, are not served any such circular.