Reviewing the Education Policy of Bangladesh: Is the Present Education Policy Adequate for Countering Terrorism and Ethnic and Religious Intolerance?

Abstract

Bangladesh, the seventh most populous and fourth largest Muslim country in the World, has a number of political parties which conduct their politics on the basis of religious ideology. Religion-based political parties attempt to tempt people to join them through religion; they try to motivate people, especially young minds, through different activities. These kinds of political parties even try to incorporate religious and orthodox syllabuses into the educational curriculum in Bangladesh. Religion-based political parties in Bangladesh are very much active through their student wings in various different educational institutions. They attract and motivate youth, both male and female, through several extra-curricular activities. Initially, they capture young minds in the name of academic assistance but gradually motivate them religiously and at some stage use them as political weapons. It is now an open secret that these kinds of emerging religiously-motivated young people are caught in the ‘idea of religious extremism’. The effect of this kind of procedure then becomes dangerous in society. It is often very common news in the daily newspapers that teachers, students and youths are captured from different academic institutions for their religion-based subversive activities, which is affecting the academic atmosphere, religious harmony and societal peace and stability.