1.4m students study in 14,000 Qawmi madrasas

A total of 1.4 million students have been studying in 13,902 Qawmi madrasas across the country. Of them, the highest 4,599 madrasas are located in Dhaka division while the lowest 1,040 are in Barisal, says a report.

The report prepared by Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) following the directives of the Prime Minister’s Office, is the first ever study conducted on Qawmi madrasas in Bangladesh.

The BANBEIS has recently submitted the report to the education ministry.

Shamsul Alam, chief of statistics department at BANBEIS, told Prothom Alo the government wants Qawmi madrasas to make a kind of connection with the mainstream education system.

The information on Qawmi madrasas has been collected by education and upazila nirbahi officers in an attempt so that the government can easily make plans over the madrasas, Shamsul said.

“This is a complete picture on upazila-based Qawmi madrasas,” he added.

According to BANBEIS report, off all the Qawmi madrasas, 12,693 are for men while 1,209 belong to women.

As many as 10,58,636 male and 3,39,616 female students have been studying while 73,731 teachers teach in these institutes.

Considering the numbers of Qawmi madrasas, Chittagong secures the second position after Dhaka with 2,984 madrasas while Rajshahi has 1,702 madrasas, 1, 246 in Sylhet, 1,176 in Rangpur and 1,155 in Khulna.

Prof M Siddiqur Rahman, a member of the Education Policy Formulation Committee, told Prothom Alo that Qawmi education should be modernised by bringing it under government’s intervention.

Besides religious education, Qawmi students should get mainstream education so that they can compete for job opportunities as well, said Siddiqur.

Bangladesh Qawmi Madrasah Education Board joint secretary Mahfuzul Haque told Prothom Alo that they do not want government grants, control and intervention but long for recognition of Qawmi education.