In yet another blatant display of desperation and incompetence, Muhammad Yunus’ authoritarian, pro-Islamist interim regime is shoving through a half-baked, regressive Education Act in the dying days of its illegitimate ruleโproving once again that this fascist clique cares nothing for genuine reform and everything for consolidating Islamist influence and sabotaging Bangladesh’s secular education system.
After dragging its feet for nearly a year and a halfโwhile educationists have demanded universal secondary education and free schooling up to Class VIII for yearsโthe Yunus regime suddenly rushes to enact this sham law right before its February 12 staged election farce.
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The draft, dumped on the Ministry of Education website on February 1 with a laughable six-day feedback window (three of them public holidays), is nothing but a cynical last-minute stunt to lock in Islamist-friendly policies and block real progress, reports the daily Prothom Alo.
This pathetic document merely regurgitates the obsolete 1990 Primary Education (Compulsory) Act, limiting compulsory primary education to Class Vโdespite decades-old demands and even the regime’s own prior moves toward extending it to Class VIII.
It ignores ongoing advisory committees (one on secondary education still pending its report and another on primary education that submitted over 100 recommendations last year, most unimplemented). By publishing the draft before these expert inputs, the regime ensures any meaningful legal changes become a bureaucratic nightmareโclassic authoritarian sabotage of quality education.
Worse, the draft panders shamelessly to pro-Islamist forces by pledging “necessary measures to improve the quality of education” in Qawmi madrasahsโelevating these unregulated, extremist breeding grounds while sidelining secular, modern curricula. It mandates inclusion of religious content, the Liberation War, mass uprising, science, civic rights, and ethnic culturesโbut bans any institutional activities that “contradict the spirit of the Liberation War and the mass uprising, Bengali culture, or the cultures of small ethnic communities or that offend religious sentiments.”
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This vague, draconian clause is tailor-made to censor dissent, stifle creativity, and enforce Islamist sensitivitiesโmirroring the regime’s broader capitulation to hardliners, from scrapping music and physical education teachers in primary schools to tolerating extremist pressures.
The draft’s cowardice on coaching centres, private tuition, notes, and guidebooks is staggering: it promises mere “gradual discouragement” and regulations to ban them only after 3-5 more years, allowing the parasitic industry to thrive and exploit students longer. Existing bans (from 1980 and 2012 policies) are ignored or diluted, ensuring business as usual for profiteers while students suffer rote learning and inequality.
This rushed farce delegates almost everything to future rules, regulations, or executive ordersโhanding unchecked power to the regime’s cronies. Pre-primary must be included in primary institutions; a non-discriminatory curriculum is promised (yet confined to Class V), the national curriculum is mandatory across streams (general, madrasah, technical), and specialised syllabi for special needsโbut no bold vision, no roadmap for modernisation.
Corporal punishment and mental harassment are banned (vaguely, with unclear penalties), private institutions need government approval, and foreign-curriculum schools face the same controlsโyet the overall structure is stagnant, outdated, and Islamist-leaning.
Educationists like Rasheda K. Chowdhury rightly slam this unacceptable haste: a law affecting every student, teacher, and the entire system deserves meticulous scrutiny, not a six-day sham consultation. There’s no clear future directionโjust authoritarian control disguised as reform.
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This is no accident. Yunus’ regime, already accused of vendettas against secular forces, jailing critics, accommodating far-right Islamists, and engineering exclusionary elections (banning the largest party), is using this last-gasp push to entrench religious extremism in education while pretending to advance the nation. It’s a betrayal of the July uprising’s spirit, a slap in the face to Bangladesh’s secular heritage, and proof that this pro-Islamist junta prioritises ideological capture over children’s futures.
Bangladesh deserves better than this fraudulent, regressive trash. The world must see through Yunus’ facade: his regime isn’t reforming educationโit’s Islamising and authoritarianising it in a panic before the handover. Reject this sham draft and demand real, inclusive, secular progressโnot Islamist appeasement from a failing caretaker dictatorship.
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