{"id":97590,"date":"2020-01-10T12:55:54","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T19:55:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97590"},"modified":"2020-01-10T12:55:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-10T19:55:54","slug":"why-are-madrasas-mushrooming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/01\/10\/why-are-madrasas-mushrooming\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are madrasas mushrooming?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shohel Mamun<\/a>\u00a0,\u00a0Ashif Islam Shaon<\/a> Courtesy Dhaka Times<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"Why<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A total of 68 madrasas dot the eight\nkilometre stretch of highway going from Jatrabari to Kachpur. There are 66\nQawmi madrasas, privately owned, while only 2 Alia madrasa exist that are\ngovernment affiliated. These privately owned Qawmi madrasas do not receive\nfinancial assistance from the government and are only able to operate with the\naid of contributions and donations made by the locals or patrons. There are\nhowever some exceptions such as madrasas that run an orphanage and are given\nfinancial aid strictly for the use of the orphanage. The madrasas that\nincorporate orphanages are sometimes given financial aid, following background\nchecks and screening by government officials. It should be pointed out that\nsome institutions exploit this loophole. Dhaka Tribune has found there are 47\nschools and colleges that enjoy government support and are situated in the\nvicinity of the same eight kilometer highway. Forming an Alia madrasa requires\ngovernment permission. Until 1970, there were an estimated 2,721 Alia madrasas\nin the country, as per Prof Abul Barkat, author of Political Economy of Madrasa\nEducation in Bangladesh published in 2011. In 2008, the total number of Alia\nmadrasas stood at 14,152. Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and\nStatistics (BANBEIS), however, says that as of 2015 total of 9,319 Alia\nmadrasas were operating in the country. Of them three are government and others\nare non-government. The number of total students are 2,409,373. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/a>
 <\/span>Islamic school students sit in a classroom on\nthe outskirts of Dhaka RAJIB DHAR<\/b><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\nProf Abul Barkat\u2019s research says, number of students in Alia mardasas until\n2008 was 4,580,082. He said that the number of Qawmi madrasas was 39,612 that\nyear where 5,247,660 students studied at different classes. BANBEIS keeps no\ndata of the students and number of madrasa of Qawmi stream. Prof Barakat\u2019s\nresearch indicates that between 1950-2008 the number of madrasas increased\nrapidly\u2014from 4,430 to 54,130. This includes both Qawmi and Alia madrasas. The\nQawmi ones increased 13 times and Alia 11 times in the 60 years span. Between\n1991-2000 the growth rate was highest when 15,000 new madrasas were added across\nthe country. Discussions with researchers, politicians and teachers points to\nreligion being politicized and belief systems becoming entrenched, bolstering\nthe grown rate of madrasa in Bangladesh. The government\u2019s negligence to\nintroduce proper education guidelines has also had an impact. Mawlana Rafiqul\nAlam, Principle of Monshipara Hafijiya Madrasa and Orphanage in Gazipur said to\nDhaka Tribune: The objectives of Qawmi madrasa education and general education\nsystem are totally different. People who want to pursue religious work opt for\nmadrasa\u201d. Qawmi madrasas are operating under more than a dozen education\nboards. A handful of Qawmi madrasas are not under any board. Then there are\nMaktabs, which are often attached to a mosque. This primary type of\ninstitutions are being established to tutor children in reading, writing,\ngrammar and Islamic studies such as Qira\u2019at (Quranic recitation) at rural and\ntown areas. Befaqul Madarisil Arabia Bangladesh (Befaq) or Bangladesh Qawmi\nmadrasa education board is the most popular regulatory board of Qawmi madrasas.\nUnder Befaq there are approximately, 5,451 madrasa as per their website. A\nvast number of people in our society want to build madrasa because of their\npersonal religious beliefs,\u201d added Rafiqul. Befaqul Madarisil Arabia Bangladesh\n(Befaq), aims to encourage dignitaries to form more madrasas in their\ncommunities. They aim to promote Islam and claims that as a result, almost all\nvillages in the country have a madrasa. Explaining why madrasas are popular, Rafiqul\nsaid: Madrasa education is significantly cheaper than general education. In\naddition, they also offer residential facilities which otherwise are not\navailable in normal schools at cheap cost,\u201d he added. The interesting fact of\nQawmi madrasa is, they reject state funding and instead rely on donations from\nthe public to run their activities. \n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding\nand management of Qawmi madrasas<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Every Qawmi madrasas has a managing\ncommittee named Majlis-ash-Shura consisting of the head of madrasa, its\nteachers and locally respected people and an executive committee with key\nmembers. The committee chief and Mohtamim (principal of the madrasa) are the\nkey persons to take care of the madrasa fund. The financial source of a Qawmi\nmadrasa can be divided in two categories\u2014internal and foreign sources,\naccording to the book by Professor Barkat. Affluent people donate money to the\nfund as Zakat (a form of alms-giving treated in Islam as a religious obligation\nor tax), Fitra (religious tax paid on the day when Muslims break the fasting\nperiod at the end of the month of Ramadan) and  Sadaqa (voluntary\ncharity). Besides, earning from waqf properties (donated assets), cultivating\ncrops in rural areas, fees given by the students are also sources of income.\nPeople also donate skins of sacrificial animals to these madrasas. Students,\nteachers, staff members also collect donations from the houses, sometimes\nrailway and bus stations and give receipts to the donors. In the past, people\nalso used to donate paddy to these madrasa and their orphanage, who now donate\nmoney generally. The foreign funds are mainly collected from the expatriate\nBangladeshis in Middle East and European countries. Some foreign organizations\nalso donate money but these donations normally are kept secret. Prof Barakat\nsaid most madrasa authorities are reluctant to open their mouths about the\nsource of funding. The Qawmi madrasa collects money for several funds\u2014general\nfund, lillah (for poor students) fund, fund to buy books, fund for\ninfrastructure construction. A standard Qawmi madrasa spends Tk25 lakhs in a\nyear on average. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nfinancial structure of Alia madrasa<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The financial structure of Alia\nmadrasa is regulated by management committees consisting of Upazila Nirbahi\nofficer (UNO), who plays the role of president, backed up by an education\nofficer, madrasa principal, teachers, guardians and locally influential people.\nThe whole financial system is being monitored by the Education Ministry,\neducation board and madrasa board. The executive committee approve expenses and\nlocal education regulatory office of the government. All transactions are\noperated by a bank. An Alia madrasa gets funds from the government\u2019s revenue\nand development budget. They also may get personal donations. Teachers,\ncommittee members and students help to collect these personal donations. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shohel Mamun\u00a0,\u00a0Ashif Islam Shaon Courtesy Dhaka Times A total of 68 madrasas dot the eight kilometre stretch of highway going from Jatrabari to Kachpur. There are 66 Qawmi madrasas, privately owned, while only 2 Alia madrasa exist that are government affiliated. These privately owned Qawmi madrasas do not receive financial assistance from the government and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97590\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}