Social Action Committee, a platform of 66 women, human rights and development organization organized a round table meeting against the propaganda on new education curriculum by the fundamentalists on 28th of February at Tofajjal Hossain Manik Mia Hall, National Press Club. This meeting was called to stop propaganda on science based, non-communal, humanitarian and equal based education curriculum.
In that round-table meeting, a total of 100 people were present including representatives of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP), Action Aid, Dipto Foundation, Dhaka YWCA, Women for Women, Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha, Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), YWCA of Bangladesh, Karmojibi Nari, Pallima Mahila Parishad, Nari Mukti Sangsad among the Social Action Committee members, , journalists of print and electronic media.
Dr. Fauzia Moslem, the President of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, was the moderator of this round table. Helen Manisha Sarkar, General Secretary of YWCA of Bangladesh, presented a written speech on behalf of the Social Action Committee. Shahriar Kabir, Secretary of the Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee; Rokeya Kabir, Executive Director of Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha; Rasheda K Chaudhury, Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), Professor Md. Moshiuzzaman, a member of NCTB (Curriculum), and Mofidul Huq, a prominent Columnist and a trustee of the Liberation War Museum, were present as speakers.
Dr. Fauzia Moslem, the President of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP), said that the curriculum is always changing keeping in view the demand. The Government should emphasize on the implementation of policy. In case of strong compromise, the Government has to adopt a strategy to understand how much compromise will be made. She urged the Government to go ahead with a successful implementation of the education curriculum ignoring the controversial speech by the fundamentalists.
Professor Md. Moshiuzzaman, a member of NCTB (Curriculum), said that the curriculum was outlined in 2019 after two years of research to introduce creative thinking learning methods instead of memorization learning methods. He also noted that, in this education curriculum, emphasis is placed on educational materials to create mental states such as identifying problems, ways to solve problems, respecting the opinions of others, respect for diversity, learning to value people of all oppressed groups.
Shahriar Kabir, Secretary of the Ekattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, said, it is by no means desirable to compromise with fundamentalists and we cannot agree to stop teaching the curriculum of science and history. Moreover, it is must to have general curriculum from fifth to eighth grade. He added that, we should talk not only about general curriculum but also madrasha curriculum.
Rokeya Kabir, Executive Director of Bangladesh Nari Progati Sangha, emphasized on the training on gender equality to create a gender sensitive attitude of the Government officers.
Rasheda K Choudhury, Executive Director of Campaign for Popular Education (CAMPE), said that the government has to be strict in case of the implementation of Digital Security Law to control those who spread hatred speech about curriculum method through social media
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Mofidul Huq, a prominent Columnist and a trustee of the Liberation War Museum, said that religion education should be unidirectional and the change of education system should be targeted very hardly.
Dilip Sarkar of The Hunger Project, Mahbooba Akhtar of Blast, Mahbooba Begum of BAWSHI, Rakhi Zaman of Ain O Shalis Kendra participated in the open discussion.
