A staggering 553 of 664 educational institutions in the hill district are without any Shaheed Minar dedicated to the 1952 Language Movement martyrs.
Language heroes, teachers, students as well as cross section of people have urged the authorities concerned for taking immediate step to build Shaheed Minar at those institutions.
According to sources of education office, there are a total 664 educational institutions in the district.
Of them, there are 534 government primary and 130 high schools, madrasas and colleges.
Only 109 educational institution are running with shaheed minar. Of them only 75 government primary schools, 34 high schools and colleges run with shaheed minar.
As a result, students of 553 institutions are deprived of showing their respect to the martyrs on 21st February.
Bitan Barua, headmaster of A P Battalion Government Primary School at Sadar upazila , said the students had to walk around two kilometer way for going to central shahid minar early in the morning to celebrate the international mother language day as there was no shaheed minar at his school.
He added that the students cannot learn practically about the language martyrs due to absence of shaheed minar.
Newton Chakma, headmaster of PBM High School under Sadar upazila, said the students failed to show due respect to the language martyrs as there was no shaheed minar at his school.
He urged the government to finance to set up a shaheed minar at the school.
Educationist Dr Sudin Kumar Chakma said: “It is important to set up shaheed mianr at each schools to show respect to language martyrs and to clear the concepts of language movements.”
Acting primary education officer Md Mamun Kabir said they had asked all primary schools to celebrate international mother language day as a part of national programme.
“To celebrate the day is mandatory but it’s not mandatory to set up shaid minar in the schools,” he said.
Education Officer Nirmol Kanti Chakma admitted that most of the educational institutions are running without shaheed minar.
“We sent an order to celebrate the day at each school,” he said.
He added there is no instruction to set up shaheed minar.
But he assured reporters that he would write concerned authority in regards of set shahid minar up in each school.
The Bengali Language Movement was formed as a political effort to advocate the recognition of the Bengali language as one of Pakistan’s official languages. At that time Bangladesh was East Pakistan and the Government of Pakistan had declared Urdu to be the sole national language, which the Bengali-speaking majority in the area objected to. In the face of rising sectarian tensions, the government put a ban on public meetings and rallies. Defying the ban, students of the University of Dhaka, along with other political activists, organized a protest to take place on February 21 ,1952. Police opened fire on the protestors, resulting in dozens of deaths.
