Separate Directorate for Madrasa, why not for Secondary Education?

Masum Billah :
Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) is the parent of junior secondary, secondary ,madrasa and college level education of Bangladesh. The administration of these institutions across the country is run and controlled from DSHE exhibiting the typical form of bureaucratic tangle. Centralized, seriously centralized system has been followed in the education administration resulting in doing almost nothing for maintaining the quality of secondary education. Bureaucratic tangle here reigns supreme. DSHE is to look after twenty eight thousand secondary schools and madrasas and several thousand colleges and several lakh teachers, staff and officers of these institutions. The giant figure itself says that it seems to a difficult task on the part of DSHE to run all the affairs smoothly. Everybody’s job affairs are being maintained from this bureaucratic house. How peculiar is the system that even a peon from the remotest part of the country is to come to get his /her work done in this house at Abdul Goni Road, Dhaka city.
It not only causes untold sufferings and miseries in the form of physical, mental, psychological, financial loss but also peculiar traps to catch these innocent and helpless people have been orchestrated by the inmates of this house which never surfaces in the true sense of the term. Some print media sometimes try to focus on these issues but it does not get any wide publicity.
When anything is brought to the notice of big guns of this office, they just give the traditional answer saying ‘we don’t have any such complaints; if we have we will look into the matter seriously.” Actually it is never seen and looked into.
Many teachers, teacher leaders and officers and staff opine that there must be a separate directorate for secondary education only as it is the largest wing of all other wings of DSHE. They think the separation will bring smooth and skilled administration to give real benefits to more than five lakh teachers of this level. They also want its decentralization. At present there are nine Deputy- Directorates scattered across the country to lessen the burden of the DSHE. But in the real sense what they do is just to send and receive some letters between DSHE and Deputy Directorates.  
These deputy-directorates are supposed to transfer teachers of their regions which also they cannot do. The transfer is done from DSHE for some unknown and peculiar reasons. It happens that DSHE transfers some teachers which remain quite unknown to these regional offices. Teachers are transferred from one school or college to another even though there lay no vacant positions in those institutions. This happens due to the lack of coordination between DHSE and Regional Offices.
Teachers of secondary level also claim that they receive step-motherly attitude from DSHE as eighty percent manpower of DHSE comes from colleges. Necessarily they remain biased towards college section and college teachers.
Secondary teachers also say that college teachers who take the centre stage of DSHE administration don’t have vast and clear idea about the pains and problems of secondary education. They want sound and equal representation from their tier. It has some merit as well.
A declaration regarding the separation of madrasa from DSHE has already come from the ministry of Education through Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on 17 June 2014. We do appreciate this decision. It also raises question when madrasa can be separated, why not secondary level? The minister said that the government has taken an initiative to establish a separate directorate to be known as Madrasah Education Directorate to oversee the madrasah education.
He came up with the information while talking to reporters at his office. At present, the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) supervises the madrasah education. The new directorate will discharge its duties from the DSHE Bhaban until a new office is allocated for it. He said the government has taken various steps for the development of madrasah education and resolving various problems. Following a demand for an independent directorate for madrasah education, the government has taken the step to establish it.
Madrasah education will get a momentum with this initiative. Acting Chairman of Bangladesh Madrasah Education Board AKM Saifullah said the Education Ministry issued a gazette notification in this regard on February 13 and the Finance Ministry has already approved it.
About fifty posts, including one of director general, two directors, three deputy directors and seven assistant directors, have been created for the directorate. The DG will be appointed very soon, sources at the Education Ministry said, adding that the rest will be recruited gradually. We appreciate this concern and decision of the government. It will be another milestone of this government in the education sector. It has been heard that madrasa teachers don’t get warm treatment in the DSHE bhaban.
Again all the works in a building and centrally controlled administration naturally creates some complexities which cannot be resolved without establishing separate directorates. When madrasa education will have a separate directorate why not general secondary education ?
The secondary level teachers have dissatisfaction over the issue of appointing DG and Directors from college level and the poor representation from secondary level. When secondary level will be upgraded up to twelve classes, this problem will be resolved in most part. Till it is done, proportionate number of representation from secondary section should be established.
The present nine deputy-directorates should be turned into full directorates and most of the works should be done regionally. It will bring momentum in the activities of the DSHE and teachers can be saved from being harassed and unnecessary movement from home to Dhaka and Dhaka to home can be reduced drastically which will increase their dedication towards the profession and general people will have more trust in this office which now they know as the center of corruption.