Qawmi mardrasas want to reopen their institutions across the country amid the coronavirus outbreak to collect rawhides from sacrificed animals during the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha.
After the recent crackdown on Hefazat-e-Islam and rising Covid-19 infection across the country, most Qawmi madrasas are now closed.
Now the leaders of Qawmi madrasas and Befaqul Madarishil Arabia Bangladesh (Befaq) are trying to convince the government to reopen their institutions before Eid-ul-Azha.
However, the government wants to bring about some changes to the Qawmi madrasa academic curriculum before a reopening of the madrasas.
According to some top level sources of the Qawmi madrasa, the former general secretary of Befaq has already sent a letter to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to consider the demand. “Now we are trying to reach the Home Ministry and the Education Ministry.”
“Till now, the government is adamant about not reopening madrasas before schools, because if the madrasas are opened before school many students can shift from primary schools to madrasas because parents in rural areas are not happy with their school-going children always being at home. They want to send them to school,” a top source of the Education Ministry told this correspondent on Wednesday.
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Regarding this issue, a meeting will be held at the Ministry of Education on Thursday where relevant officials of the Education Ministry, officers from the Home Ministry and representatives of Qawmi madrasas will be present at the Secretariat.
While talking to Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday, Mufti Nurul Amin, vice principal of Jamia Arabia Emdadul Ulum Faridabad Madrasa, said that many students of the madrasa had been suffering at home (due to poor living conditions) and so were demanding that they be allowed to come back to the madrasa.
“Our students all over the country participate in the slaughter of sacrificial animals and collect the rawhides. It is also a source of our income,” he added.