Untold Facts

Masjid Based Literacy Issue

There was report in a Dhaka daily on the 7th November (08) that a group has submitted a protest note to the Chief Adviser of the Caretaker Government (CG) making objection against the program for basic literacy training at some selected the Masajids (mosques) in some localities. Their argument for their opposition had two points; one, the Imams of the mosques are not adequately qualified and two, that such mosque-based program would violate the Constitution of the country. Are the points valid?

Imams of mosques are not uneducated persons; they are all without exception are fairly educated so far as imparting basic literacy learning for the young kids are concerned in 3 R’s or Reading Writing and Arithmetic in native language are concerned. Because, the Imams are not only native Bengali speakers but also had had enough of them learnt in Madarasas or Islamic learning schools as are in the country for long back and had reformed their syllabuses in recent times at par with other secondary schools. If they need further training in teacher education, in case some of them had not had any that could well be organized and imparted to improve their skills in teaching young boys and girls. The only objection in such cases could be that non-Muslim parents might not like the mosque campus for religious dislike; if this would be the case, there are certainly primary schools around that they could go to for acquiring basic primary learning skills and literacy. I would, however, feel that the Imams should not have any prejudice for any non-Muslim young children to accommodate them in basic learning process just as I knew that the Prophet’s mosque of Medina in the early 7th century had not only been open to all for basic learners but also had even non-Muslim teachers.
In regard to the Constitution of Bangladesh, I did not find in the news item specific mention of provisions of the national document that might be violated in conducting the literacy program in the mosques. What I know, however, that the essence of the 5th and the 8th Amendments of the Constitution made it rather obvious that the primary learning of the young children should be conducted in the country’s thousand year old traditional Muslim institutions like mosques and Makatabs (Ibtedayee Madarasas). As the Constitution further provides for the same level of primary schooling as compulsory one for all children irrespective of religion, caste and creed, the secular primary schools that had its birth during the British colonial rule in the 19th century and have been in full functioning in every locality since then could well do the teaching for all non-Muslim children. There is, as such, no question of discrimination between children of various faiths.

Dr. M.T. Hussain
Dhaka-1206