Forum on Faith and Education in Bangladesh: Pathways to
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Forum on Faith and Education in Bangladesh: Pathways to Pluralism The “Forum on Faith and Education in Bangladesh: Pathways to Pluralism,” a day-long event, was held at the Amari Hotel in Dhaka on January 7, 2020. The objective was to bring together scholars, faith actors, development practitioners and policymakers to reflect on education challenges facing Bangladesh and beyond, with a focus on education both by religious institutions and to promote religious literacy and understanding. It also focused on key challenges and prospects for pursuing pathways to pluralism through education. Panelists were drawn from diverse multidisciplinary backgrounds and over 130 participants attended. The forum aimed to examine specific roles that religious institutions currently play in education, both in terms of existing institutions as well as the pertinent curricula, notably in languages, social sciences, humanities, and religious studies. By putting Bangladeshi realities and experiences in conversation with similar realities elsewhere, the forum sought to foster joint learning, build regional and global networks of common ideas and sharing of experiences to work towards sustainable solutions. The Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ), BRAC University, World Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD), and Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University jointly convened the forum under the collaborative project on Bangladesh Religious Dimensions of Development and Social Cohesion.
Forum on Faith and Education in Bangladesh: Pathways to
Pathways to Pluralism
The “Forum on Faith and Education in Bangladesh: Pathways to
Pluralism,” a day-long event, was held at the Amari Hotel in Dhaka
on January 7, 2020. The objective was to bring together scholars,
faith actors, development practitioners and policymakers to reflect
on education challenges facing Bangladesh and beyond, with a focus
on education both by religious institutions and to promote
religious literacy and understanding. It also focused on key
challenges and prospects for pursuing pathways to pluralism through
education. Panelists were drawn from diverse multidisciplinary
backgrounds and over 130 participants attended. The forum aimed to
examine specific roles that religious institutions currently play
in education, both in terms of existing institutions as well as the
pertinent curricula, notably in languages, social sciences,
humanities, and religious studies. By putting Bangladeshi realities
and experiences in conversation with similar realities elsewhere,
the forum sought to foster joint learning, build regional and
global networks of common ideas and sharing of experiences to work
towards sustainable solutions.
The Centre for Peace and Justice (CPJ), BRAC University, World
Faiths Development Dialogue (WFDD), and Berkley Center for
Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University jointly
convened the forum under the collaborative project on Bangladesh
Religious Dimensions
of Development and Social Cohesion.
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OPENING REMARKS Opening the forum was Barrister Manzoor Hasan, OBE,
executive director, Centre for Peace and Justice, BRAC University.
In greeting the guests, he emphasized the important roles that
faith plays in Bangladeshi society, observing that public education
in Bangladesh should encompass more world religions in order to
foster a more peaceful and civil society. Ms. Mia Seppo: UN
Resident Coordinator for Bangladesh Mia Seppo highlighted the
importance of diverse religious curriculum and civic values in the
education sphere and the danger that extremist ideologies pose in
some Muslim majority nations. She gave the example of the Taliban
shooting Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan in an assassination attempt
intended to silence the young education activist. While individual
activists (like Ms. Yousafzai) have important roles to play in
advancing pluralistic education, it is through the collaborative
efforts of like-minded individuals working from different spheres
of society that broader agendas for change can be truly moved
forward. Diversity and pluralism are critical, given the deepening
rifts in global society and the rising waves of divisive politics
across the world. She commended the initiative to organize such a
forum and encouraged those present to recognize the need to foster
collective thinking and establish stronger networks for making
education in Bangladesh more pluralistic. Dr. Samia Huq: Ph.D.,
Interim Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Associate
Professor, Anthropology and Research Fellow of Centre for Peace and
Justice, BRAC University. Dr. Huq presented a general overview of
the project and emphasized the current situation of faith- inspired
education in Bangladesh. She described the vast majority of
faith-inspired education providers in Bangladesh as seeking to
teach ‘for’ religion instead of ‘about’ religion. Such forums here
in the country can advocate for teaching ‘about’ religion in a way
that is collaborative, inclusive, and non-combative. Professor
Katherine Marshall: WFDD’s Executive Director, Professor of
Development, Conflict, and religion and Senior Fellow at the
Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown
University Professor Katherine Marshall highlighted the objectives
set out for the Forum series and specifically for this event,
focusing on challenges that lie at the intersection of development,
faith, and education. Six areas of focus are pertinent in exploring
religious dimensions of education challenges: (a) education
delivered directly by religious entities; (b) education about
religion; (c) education to inculcate religion; (d) educational of
future religious leaders and scholars; (e) education that aims to
reach neglected groups like refugees; and (f) education about civic
values. The forum focused on the latter point regarding civic
values but reflected on the previous five as well.
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PANEL DISCUSSIONS Dr. Sudipta Roy: Faculty Fellow in Education at
Colby College, USA, Director of American Institute of Bangladesh
Studies, and research consultant at the World Faiths Development
Dialogue Dr. Roy presented a summary of a forthcoming research
review: “Pathways to Pluralism in Bangladeshi Education: A Review.”
He outlined the team’s research on the topic and highlighted
questions regarding diversity in Bangladesh’s religious sector, how
social cohesion and pluralism are represented in textbooks and
curricula, and descriptive characteristics of social cohesion and
pluralism that emerged from the data. Notably, Dr. Roy and the team
had undertaken a content analysis of the NCTB textbooks, finding
that religious and cultural diversity in Bangladesh were not well
presented in the texts, which, rather, focused on Islam and
Bangladesh’s national superiority. Minority religions were often
represented as ‘tokens’ in the texts, shown simply for the sake of
including them rather than explaining their practice in-depth.
Additionally, while gender parity is shown visually, social norms
are still presented as patriarchal and stereotypical in the
textbooks. In conclusion, Dr. Roy argued that the religious and
secular platforms that address education requirements must work
together and that if ideas of social cohesion are not well
developed, the education that the poor (and others) receive will
not properly prepare them to be contributing members of Bangladeshi
society. Dr. Roy’s research is timely and significant as the
government of Bangladesh is set to update the national curriculum
in 2021 in an effort to make it more pluralistic and
cohesive.
Ms. Sun Lei: Education Specialist, UNESCO Dhaka Office Ms. Lei
presented “Global Citizenship Education in the Twenty-First
Century,” focusing on SDG goal 4 and target 4.7 which seeks to
ensure the promotion of sustainable development and lifestyles
through education by 2030. She defined global citizenship education
as “education that gives us a profound understanding that we are
tied together as citizens of the global community, and the
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challenges are interconnected” and that GCE represents belonging to
a broader community and humanity. According to Lei, GCE will equip
individuals with relevant ‘soft’ twenty-first century skills to
empower citizens to be responsible, creative, inclusive, and
peaceful. Dr. Stephen Heyneman: Professor Emeritus of International
Education Policy, Department of Leadership, Policy, and
Organizations, Vanderbilt University, USA Dr. Heyneman’s
presentation was titled “Religion, Education, and Development” and
highlighted issues specific to regions where a single religious
tradition is dominant as well as those specific to Bangladesh. He
outlined the principles underlying the creation and foundation of
public education and its benefits for social cohesion. The lack of
opportunities to learn about interfaith attitudes and behaviors in
Bangladesh can lead to a deterioration of a national sense of
social cohesion and could lead some schools to be used as tools of
propaganda. He gave different examples from other regions in the
world where schools and texts taught different versions of history
during times of conflict (Ireland and former Yugoslavia). Dr.
Heyneman recommended the mandated registration of all students and
madrassas to ensure that accurate numbers of enrollment are
recorded in order to ensure proper governmental oversight. He also
recommended the licensing of non-governmental schools and national
objectives for educators and schools to ensure that students are
being taught the values of civil society. Heyneman argued that
schools can be used to solve social tensions, but they can also be
used as a weapon to spread propaganda that leads to social unrest.
In order to accomplish the positive ends, public schools should
require that students learn about all major world faiths. He
suggested a look towards the Singapore education model for
inspiration. Dr. Jamhari Makruf: Lecturer and Deputy Rector of the
Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Syarif Hidayatlluh, Indonesia Dr.
Jamhari presented on “Nurturing Faith: Creating a Pious Person as a
Good Citizen.” His presentation began with a snapshot of the
political and religious landscape in Indonesia, noting how
conservatism there has the propensity to turn into extremism. He
then highlighted the differences between public and religious
education and how drastically they differed. Dr. Jamhari argued
that public schools benefited from very limited coordination among
the ministries involved. Further, many texts reflect conservative
and extremist ideology and intolerance to other major religions,
and do not show respect to Indonesia as a nation. In religious
schools, there was no overall control over curriculum as they are
mostly private, but extremist ideology was limited and they tended
to split allegiance between Islam and Indonesia. He highlighted the
importance of introducing new subjects on comparative religion in
schools to foster a deeper understanding between ethnic and
religious groups.
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Ms. Rasheda K. Choudhury: Executive Director, Campaign for Popular
Education (CAMPE) and Co- Founder of Global Campaign for Education
(GCE) The final key speaker (before the lunch break) was Ms.
Choudhury. She saw the diversity of the participants and panels at
the forum as proof of the collective desire to listen and be a part
of the important topic at hand. She addressed the complexity of the
current global landscape where religion is often abused and there
is a growing lack of genuine interest in religious topics. She
mentioned Bangladesh’s occasional promotion of hatred against other
religions and called for textbooks and national curriculums to
teach about other world faiths. There is an urgent need to counter
violent extremism in the name of religion and religious freedom.
The national education policy of 2010 needed to be reformed but
most faith leaders lacked a desire to reform it. Lastly,
Bangladeshi religious textbooks should incorporate more respectful
content regarding other world religions. In order to reform the
curriculum, civil society must step forward to provide oversight.
As a human rights advocate, she felt the need for public oversight
in government agencies to ensure that textbooks, educators, and
schools are operating at the highest level. Each session was
followed by a lively question and answer session. REFLECTIONS FROM
THE GROUND The session following lunch was titled “Reflections from
the ground,” and showcased the roles of particular faith-inspired
organizations engaged in education delivery. Representatives from
the Islamic Foundation, Caritas, ISKCON, Rama Krishna Mission, and
the Buddhist Religion Welfare Trust shared short presentations that
centered on an overall goal of reuniting Bangladesh, upholding
diversity and the steps needed to fulfill those goals, in line with
their distinct organizational ethos. Above all, it was agreed upon
that education is crucial for ridding society of ills like
terrorism, corruption, and political turmoil and violence. The
director of the Islamic Foundation, Mr. A.K.M. Fazlur Rahman,
provided a historical overview of the Islamic Foundation.
Established in 1975, its mission is to disseminate the values and
ideals of Islam. He highlighted the prominence of Islam in the
region and the embeddedness of Islamic values in Bangladeshi
society. He spoke at length on the new stream of Islamic education,
Darul Arqam, being developed by the Foundation. This stream is
intended to provide students with more rigorous training in the
Arabic language, in contrast to other madrassa streams in
Bangladesh. The primary rationale for introducing this stream is to
enhance Bangladesh’s labor competitiveness in the Middle East. He
concluded by emphasizing that the Islamic Foundation is working
towards the betterment of Bangladesh as a whole.
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Mr. Shishir Rozario, manager (education) from Caritas Bangladesh,
shared an overview of the broad role of Caritas in Bangladesh.
Based on the values of freedom, justice, peace, and forgiveness and
guided by the Catholic social teachings, Caritas works towards
upholding the dignity of people, especially the poor and
marginalized. Their educational activities focus on promoting
education rights and ensuring inclusive, quality education.
Inclusiveness is core to the educational programs at Caritas
Bangladesh and its work traverses many social divides. The
organization ensures that wherever their programs are in operation,
education is delivered to female children, children with special
needs, Adibashis, and other generally excluded groups, with no
distinction of caste, religion or other markers of social
difference. ISKCON’s director of the Youth Forum, Trivanga Shyamdas
Bramhachari, presented on the history and educational role of
ISKCON in Bangladesh. Spiritual self-development is central to
ISKCON’s educational offerings. The organization also provides
training in soft skills like public speaking, stress management,
leadership, and management. ISKCON takes a holistic approach to
education, enhancing sensitivity, motivation and self-confidence
and reviving the individual’s bond to nature. Swami
Devadhyanananda, a monk from Rama Krishna Mission, presented on the
mission’s role in promoting harmony and spiritual unity. He stated
that peaceful coexistence in a diverse society is only possible
through spiritual education. Rama Krishna Mission aims to make
education more holistic through the harmonization of ancient
wisdom, modern knowledge, spiritual fulfilment, realization of
individual potential, social equality and promotion of peace,
without any discrimination as to race, creed, caste or
nationality.
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