24 eminent citizens call for end to anarchy in question papers

Twenty-four prominent citizens of the country have issued a joint statement calling for an end to the anarchy in the question papers. 

The statement, issued on Friday (11 November), said recently there have been incidents of including contents of communally inflammatory, derogatory towards women and hateful and insulting towards an author in the creative question papers of secondary, higher secondary and technical level public examinations. 

Terming the incident undesirable, the protesters including Pankaj Bhattacharya, Sultana Kamal and Ramendu Mazumder said the incidents cannot be accepted under any circumstances.

They regretted that a universal, non-communal, science-based education system is yet to be established in Bangladesh even after 50 years of independence, which was achieved at the cost of 30 lakh lives. 

"This education system is made more backward by accepting the 13 demands of Hefazat-e-Islam. A large proportion of the country's children are being educated in government-controlled Aliya Madrasahs and non-controlled Qaumi Madrasahs," the statement said.

Besides, they said, there is still a question of whether teachers have been able to develop themselves suitable for this method or not.

The statement said, "Teachers and students should all become creative in the creative education system.

"The inclusion of communal, derogatory to women, hateful to individuals in the recent question papers in the public examinations have revealed the reactionary, communal and anti-modernist tendencies of the education system."

They said it is time to think about the entire education system besides questioning the qualifications and roles of the question paper makers and moderation board members. 

"At the same time," they continued, "the demand raised by a group of fundamentalists to exclude Charles Darwin's revolutionary theory of evolution from the lessons of science education is disturbing us." 

"These issues will hinder the spread of science education and free thinking in Bangladesh and will push the state and society into darkness, sectarianism and evil in the long run," the statement concluded.

The citizens who issued the statement are Pankaj Bhattacharya, Sultana Kamal, Syed Anwar Hossain, Rasheda K Chowdhury, Ramendu Mazumder, Dr Sarwar Ali, Noor Mohammad Talukder, Rana Dasgupta, Khushi Kabir, MM Akash, SMA Sabur, Robayet Ferdous, Saleh Ahmed, Parvez Hashem, Abdul Waheed, MA Samad, Selu Basit, Ranjit Kumar Saha, AK Azad, Alok Dasgupta, Abdur Razzak, Abdul Alim, Dipayan Khisa and Gautam Sheel.