Madrasa Education:

Streamlining Needed Today

21-Apr-10
Prepared By Mujahid Hossain Shuvo
ID # 061693530
Eng- 105
Instructor: Sabhat Jahan
 Madrasa Education 2

Madrasa Education:

Streamlining Needed Today

Mujahid Hossain Shuvo

English 105, Section 11

Sabhat Jahan

Madrasa Education:
 Madrasa Education 3

Streamlining Needed Today

Introduction

Over last few years the percentage of enrolment of students into

madrasa has been increased dramatically compared to other branches

of education in Bangladesh. In the newspapers and other branches

media sources it has been showing that the increase is due to the rise

of Islamic militancy in Bangladesh. Like other people I was also very

much worried when I first heard about it. The questions that struck into

my mind were - "How much do the parents of the madrasa students

know about Islam? Do not the parents know anything about the

connections between the Islamic terrorists and the madrasas? Why do

they send their children there?" Then I decided to work on the parent's

of the madrasa students' point of view towards madrasa education and

the ways to overcome this situation.

When I completed my survey, I came out with a totally different

answer. I found that parents send their children to the madrasas

mainly due to the financial reasons. Education in madrasa is the

cheapest among all the education branches. It becomes hard for the

poor people to afford the other branches of education. Moreover in our

country, people have sympathy towards the madarsas. Many people

provide financial help to the madrasa students through the madrasa

authority.
 Madrasa Education 4

As most of the parents of the students are very poor, they do not

have much educational qualification. Most of them could not tell me

what necessary steps should be taken to improve the education quality

of the madrasa. But they certainly feel that in some way the education

quality should be improved.

Moreover, I got ensured that there is hardly any relationship

between the madarasa and the rise of Islamic terrorism. People mix up

these two issues without knowing much about it. So I had to change

my idea about the matter. Now I should say that, increasing number of

students in madrasa in recent years in Bangladesh is due to cheap

education and the financial help the madrasa authority provides to the

children and their families.

Background

The present system of madrasa education was introduced in the

British period as Muslims refused the British style education. Since

then, madrasa had been an important part of our education system.

But due to the absence of proper attention the outcomes of this branch

of education have never been good (Bari, 2006, p. 14).

But recently madrasa education has received more government

favor than general education. In last five years, as many as 1,720

general educational institutions (schools and colleges up to higher

secondary level) were set up, raising the total to 19,370. On the other

hand, a total of 1,618 new madrasas were set up during this period.
 Madrasa Education 5

The number of students in general educational institutions rose 8.64%

while the madrasas saw a 10.12% rise in enrolment during this period

(Byron & Mahmud, 2005, p. 10).

The statistics of the growing number of madrasa and madrasa

students are published the daily newspaper "The Daily Star" of August

04, 2005. There the comparison between the rise of students of

madrasa and other branches are discussed with proper explanation.

The internet article "The Problems with Madrasa" written by H. I.

Wamy talks in support of madrasa against Islamic terrorism.

"Madrassa education - An Anachronism or A Victim of

exploitation" written by M. Rezwan provides the information about

madrasa education system and the syllabus.

In the daily newspaper "The Independent" of March 10, 2006 the

writer M. H. Bari discussed about the ways to develop madrasa

education in his article "Madras Education: How It Can Be Modified.

There he emphasized on how to improve the educational quality of the

madrasas.

Finally I got to know why the then ruling Government

emphasized on madrasa education more than the regular system from

the TV series "Grameenphone Tritiyo Matra" episode "Madrasa, How

Much Does It Contrubute?". Here former Finance Minister of

Bangladesh M. Saifur Rahman talked about it.

Hypothesis
 Madrasa Education 6

I personally believed that the increasing number of madrasa

students is due to the rise of Islamic militants all over the world.

The madrasa mentors influenced the poor people to send their

children to madrasa by giving them food, clothes and other financial

benefits. But some people do send their children because of their

religious beliefs but they are few in number.

Basically children from poor families study in madrasas because

education is very cheap in the madrasas. Often it is free. Moreover

parents are given a few financial benefits in return of sending their

children to madrasas.

These people do not have a clear knowledge of Islam. They do

not even expect anything particular from their children which can

influence them to send their children to the madrasa. They remain

happy that the food and finance of the family in ensured at least to a

certain extent.

Research Methodology

For my primary research I prepared questionnaires for the

parents, whose children are studying at the madrasas. Talking to

financer of the madrasas will be beneficial too.

My secondary research will mainly consist of the articles taken

from the internet and newspaper. I will be using typical search engines

like Google, Yahoo and various online Bangladeshi newspaper

 Madrasa Education 7

websites. I will also take help from the television discussion program

related to this issue.

Survey

This survey has been done randomly on the parents of the

madrasa students. Doing survey on 21 people I have come up with the

following results.

Monthly Income of The Parents of The Madrasa

Going Children

40.00% 38.09%
33.33%
35.00%
30.00%
23.81%
25.00%
20.00%
15.00%
10.00% 4.76%
5.00%
0.00%
Monthly < tk.5000 tk.5000 - tk.10000 - > 20000 tk
Income tk.10000 tk.20000

This is a bar graph. It represents the monthly income of the

parents of the madrasa students in percentages.

The graph says that 33.33% parents of the madrasa students

earn below tk. 5000 per month, 23.81% earn between tk. 5000 - tk.

10000, 38.09% earns between tk. 10000 - tk. 20000 and only 4.76%

earns over tk. 20000.

So it is clearly visible that most of the parents of the madrasa

students belong to either poor or middle class family. And we know

that most of the Bangladeshi family have two or more children.

 Madrasa Education 8

Madrasa provides the cheapest education in Bangladesh. That is why

they have chosen madrasa as a medium of their children's education.

Ratio of Students According to

Financial Help Provided By The
Madrasa Authority

Does Not
Get
Gets
Financial
Financial
Help,
Help,
49.53%
50.47%

This is a pie chart. It represents the ratio of students according to

financial help provided to them by the madrasa authority.

The chart tells that 50.47% of the students get financial help

from the authority and the rest 49.53% study without any financial

help.

From the previous graph we have come to know that people

send their children to madrasa because education is cheap there. Here

we see that 50.47% of the students can not bear this cheap education.

They get financial benefit from the madrasa. By providing this financial

benefit the authority holds the students. If the poor parents send their

children to regular school instead of madrasa, they will not get this

financial help.
 Madrasa Education 9

Lt. Col. Joarder (retd.), financer and member of advisory board of

a madrasa named Hedayatul Ummat Bangladesh said that, the

increasing number of students in madrasa is mainly due to cheap

education. This is a kind of bonus for the parents that their children are

getting the light of education (personal communication, April 08,

2007). No there is left no chance to disagree that the increase in

numbers of madrasa students is due to cost of education.

Parents Who Supports Islamic Militancy

Yes
No comments 10%
25%

No
65%

This is a donut chart. It notifies the percentage of parents of

madrasa students who supports Islamic militancy.

To the questions related to Islamic militancy, 65% people said

that they do not support it, 10% said that they support and 25%

decided to give no comments.

We see that the major percentage of people do not support

Islamic militancy. That means they have not sent their children to

madrasa to be a militant. They want their children to be educated.

 Madrasa Education 10

After interviewing a parent Mr. Mir Nuruddin Shahin, Accountant

of Islam Group of Industries, I have come up with the idea that people

also want a good religious education for their children. For this reason

many people send their children to the madrasa even after having the

capability to admit their children in secular school (personal

communication, April 01, 2007).

There are a few good madrasas such as Mohammadpur women

madrasa, Bakshibazar Aliya Madrasa etc. These institutions provide

good education. Regular school students find it difficult to compete

with them in many competitions. But the problem is these kinds of

madrasas are very few in number (Lt. Col. Joarder (Retd.), personal

communication, April 08, 2007).

Moreover, from the Graph -1 (Appendix) we see that most of the

parents expect their children to be highly educated. That means in the

hope to see a bright future of the child the parents send him/her to the

madrasa. And Graph -2 (Appendix) shows that around 78% of the

parents offer their prayer regularly. That means they believe in Islam.

They are not motivated by others to send their children to madrasa. To

illustrate this issue we can have a look at the Graph-3 (Appendix). It

shows how the parents are being motivated to send their children to

the madrasa. Around 80% of people are motivated by themselves and

by their relatives to admit their children to Madrasa.

 Madrasa Education 11

Most of these people do not think the increasing number of

students in madrasa is unnatural. According to Mr. Mir Mr. Mir Nuruddin

Shahin, Accountant of Islam Group of Industries, "when madrasas

provide this much help to the poor people, there is no chance to say

the madrasas bad. You should appreciate the increasing number of

students (personal communication, April 01, 2007).

But there have been much debate on the unstructured and

obsolete curriculum of Madrassas with superstitious concepts and

antiquated social values; which produces students, who cannot even

read or write properly in their own mother tongue Bengali let alone

English. Science, Geography, Physics and other modern subjects are

conspicuous by their absence, with most students encouraged only to

memorize the Koran (Rezwan, 2004).

Our government is contributing much to improve the madrasa

educaqtion system. In a TV show called Grameenphone Tririyo Matra

(2005) former Finance Minister M.Saifur Rahman said, "Madrasa

students contribute a huge portion of our youth. A huge section of

education budget is kept for them. It is not that the Government is

making foolish contribution. We need to bring up those neglected

youth".

Summary of Findings

The survey and interview results clearly go against my

hypothesis. I thought there must be a connection between the

 Madrasa Education 12

increasing number of students of madrasa and the rise of Islamic

militancy. Parents are forced to send their children to the madrasas.

But now after the survey and talking to the experts I have found

that parents send their children to the madrasas willingly. There is no

connection between the increases of madrasa students and the rise of

Islamic militancy in our country. The only thing which I think is needed

to be improved is that the education quality.

Suggestions

Madrasa curriculum needs to be enriched and diversified. An

education system must enable students to tackle challenges of the real

world out there. They need be taught a larger syllabus that will include

social science, pure science, and mathematics as well as English and a

comparative study of other religions as special subject (Wamy, 2004)

Scholars from respective subjects will be appointed as Madrasha

teacher and they will be allowed special financial benefits. A Shariah

council constituting of the most outstanding Islamic scholars will

govern these Madrashas and for funding the Government should play

the major role (Bari, 2006, p.10).

Conclusion

Once again, I say that there is not any relationship between the

increasing number of students in the madrasa and the rise of Islamic

militancy in Bangladesh. The increase is due to cheap education. If it is

 Madrasa Education 13

possible to develop the education quality of the madrasa education

system, these students can make our country proud.

References

Bari, M. H. (2006, March 10). Madrasa education: How it can be

modified. The Independent, p. 14

Byron, R. K. & Mahmud, S. (2005, August 04). Madrasas mushroom

with state favour. The Daily Star, p. 1.

Rahman, Z. (Director). (2005). Madrasa, how much does it contribute?.

Channel I (Producer), Grameenphone tritiyo matra. Dhaka: Channel I

Studio.

Rezwan, M. (2004, September 22). Madrasa education - an

anachronism or a victim of exploitation. Retrieved March 18,

2007, from http://rezwanul.blogspot.com/ 2004/09/

madrassaeducation-anachronism-or.html.

Wamy, H. I. (2004, September 22). The problem with Madrasa. Retrived

April 04, 2007, from http://moodlogic.blogspot.com/

004_09_01_moodlogic_archive.html.