New Delhi: Protests erupted in Bangladesh last week after the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration rolled back its recruitment of music and physical training (PT) teachers to government primary schools earlier this year, as part of its reforms announced after the Sheikh Hasina government was toppled.
The move triggered by months of protests by Islami Andolon Bangladesh, Hefazat-e-Islam, and Jamaat-e-Islami, among other Islamist groups, labelling both music and PT as “un-Islamic”, is being widely seen as “capitulation” by the Yunus administration.
After the administration failed to offer any explanation for scrapping the posts of music and PT teachers, Dhaka University’s music department students staged protests.
According to the administration’s press wing, the secretaries’ committee under the interim government has said that proceeding with the appointments will be impossible. “If appointments were made on a cluster basis, a single teacher would have to serve, simultaneously, in more than 20 schools,” the press wing was quoted as saying in local media. The teaching positions for these new subjects will be created later if funds are available, the committee has added.
Students, teachers, and cultural activists have protested the scrapping of the posts, calling it a “betrayal of the nation’s secular and creative spirit”. Besides Dhaka University, the Jagannath University (JnU), Chittagong University (CU), and Rajshahi University (RU) teachers and students—especially, those with the music department—have demonstrated against the administrative move, demanding the reinstatement of music and PT teaching positions in primary schools.
“This damages the important history of our country. Many of those in the government today are teachers. Our education advisor is also a sensitive person. How did he give this order? A state cannot run on religion. Music is also needed,” Professor Israfeel Shaheen, a teacher in the Department of Theatre, was quoted as saying.
When the administration first issued the gazette for music and PT teachers’ recruitments, Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam protested against the move initially. The two groups called the inclusion of music in schools “a conspiratorial move that goes against Islam”.
According to a The Daily Star report, the ministry has refused to answer whether the amended gazette cancelling the positions was a response to “criticism” by religious groups.
From progressive to ‘un-Islamic’
In August this year, the primary and mass education ministry introduced new teaching positions under the Government Primary School Teacher Recruitment Rules 2025. It was welcomed across quarters as a progressive move towards holistic education.
A report in The Diplomat says that Bangladeshi officials later called the posts ‘impractical’, noting that to hire a music teacher for every group of 10-20 schools was not a feasible prospect, as Bangladesh has over 65,000 government primary schools. There are a total of 9.99 million students and close to four lakh teachers in these schools.
But, according to local reports, Islami Andolan Bangladesh chief Ameer Syed Mohammad Rezaul Karim denounced the government’s plan earlier in September. Instead, he urged the appointment of religious teachers in primary schools.
On the same day, leaders from Jamaat-e-Islami, Islami Andolan Bangladesh, Khelafat Majlis, Bangladesh Khelafat Majlis, and Bangladesh Khelafat Andolon criticised the creation of the music-teaching position during a seminar, calling the initiative inappropriate for a Muslim-majority nation.
Rise of hardliners
Broader concerns are polluting the political atmosphere in Bangladesh.
A Dhaka Tribune report says the Ministry of Education earlier planned to hire 5,166 teachers under the now-cancelled scheme, with a long-term goal of expanding to 131,134 posts. The cancellation stops the recruitment of teachers, trained in music or PT.
Moreover, it reflects the Yunus administration’s weakness, as it has made several changes to its initial reform programmes, mostly citing technical reasons.
For instance, when the Bangladesh women’s affairs reform commission proposed measures earlier in September, including equal inheritance rights for women, a ban on polygamy, and the recognition of sex workers as labourers, religious groups demanded that the commission be dissolved. The ultimate fate of the proposed reforms remains uncertain as discussions continue.
In November last year, a two-day festival by devotees of Lalon Fakir, a 17th-century Bengali sufi saint, was cancelled in Narayanganj. It was the first time in Bangladesh’s history that the event was cancelled. The cancellation came after the leaders of Hefazat-e-Islam, a coalition of Islamist organisations, had accused the event of “indecency”.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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