The teachers of the ibtedayi madrassahs at a discussion in the capital on Saturday demanded nationalisation of their madrassahs.
Interim government鈥檚 religious affairs adviser AFM Khalid Hossain attends the discussion as chief held at the National Press Club organised by the Swatantra Ebtedayi Madrassah Shikkhak Forum,
He expressed solidarity with the demand and urged the teachers to submit their demands to the education adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud.
Their demands include nationalisation of all ibtedayi madrassahs, stipend for the students and increased salaries for the teachers, implementation of the guideline to establish the madrassah, recognition, organogram and salary structure as well as opening pre-primary level at the madrassahs.
While presenting a paper, forum secretary Muhammad Masudur Rahman Talukder said that in 1983 the government named the Forqania madrassahs as ibtedayi madrassahs.
In 1994 the government started to give grant to 1,519 ibtedayi madrassahs and started to give the teachers Tk聽500 as monthly allowance, he said.
He also said that later in January 2013 following the protest of the teachers, the government increased the monthly allowance for the teachers to Tk聽1,000 and later it was increased to Tk聽1,200.
Again in 2015 a government order has been issued for providing monthly allowances to the head teachers Tk聽2,500 and assistant teachers as Tk聽2,300 under the 1,519 ibtedayi madrassahs, Masudur Rahman said.
He added that since April 2023 the head teachers of these madrassahs have been getting Tk聽3,500 and assistant teachers Tk聽3,300 as monthly allowances.
Forum president Sheikh Nazrul Islam Mahbub said that they wanted the end to the discrimination against them going on for the past 40 years.
鈥業f our demands are not met, we will go for tougher movement from next month,鈥� he added.
Religious affairs adviser AFM Khalid Hossain said that if the ibtedayi madrassahs were not operated properly, then the future of the Islamic studies would be dark.
He alleged that during the time of the past governments there was a conspiracy for damaging the madrassah education.
He also said that he would discuss with Wahiduddin Mahmud about the demands.
