Ebtedayee madrasahs to be nationalised

As many as 1,519 Ebtedayee madrasas under grants will be nationalised in phases, SM Masudul Haque, joint secretary of Technical and Madrasah Division under the Ministry of Education, has said.

He made the announcement at the teachers' camp in Shahbagh on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier, senior officials of the ministry held a meeting on the nationalisation of Ebtedayee madrasahs. A 15-member delegation of the agitators participated in the meeting.

Kazi Mokhlesur Rahman, chairman of the Independent Ebtedayee Madrasah Teachers' Alliance, said, "We had a long discussion. All the demands have been accepted by the government."

Addressing the protesting teachers, Joint Secretary SM Masudul Haque said, "We have condemned the police's use of water cannon and baton charges on you. Your deprivation has been alleviated. We have done several other things including your six-point demand.”

“We will start the work of monthly pay orders (MPO) from 2025," he added.

Regarding the teachers' demands, Masudul said, "We agreed with everyone that all independent Ebtedayee Madrasas in Bangladesh will be nationalised, which was your first demand. The second demand was to lift the suspension order on the registration of independent Ebtedayee madrasah. The list of Ebtedayee madrasahs to be brought under MPO in 2025 is under review.

“We asked to submit it by 31 January and we will launch it by March. The suspension order will be lifted. Your third demand was to include the registered madrasahs without codes under the Madrasah Education Board. We will do this from June 2025.”

“The fourth demand was to approve the Independent Ebtedayee Madrasah Salary Allowance Policy 2024. We have already prepared the policy 2025. We will approve the final draft by March and launch it,” he continued.

He also said, “The fifth demand was to appoint office assistants like the ones in primary schools. Our announcement will include the creation of this post. The sixth demand was to introduce pre-primary classes like primary schools. We have already asked to include it in the policy 2025 for introducing. A teacher has also been arranged for pre-primary level.”

For the past few days, teachers of the Ebtedayee madrasahs have been staging demonstrations to realise their six-point demand, including nationalisation.

At one stage, on Sunday, when they tried to besiege the residence of the chief adviser, the police used tear gas, water cannons and baton charge to disperse the agitators in Shahbagh area, which was widely criticised on social media.

Since then, the teachers have been holding sit-in programmes on the road in front of the public library in Shahbagh.