education structure. So at the expense of providing a ‘common standard’ education, the specialty of these systems are being subordinated. Another problem appears from the process of harmonizing the contents. In assimilating the syllabi, the madrassa board is introducing substantial change and censoring in the text books.141 In adopting the texts of the main subjects, the madrassa board omitted George Harrison’s picture from the Liberation war chapter, discarded the secular and humanistic poem “Manobdhormo” (Human Conviction) by Lalon142 (which was meant to teach the students the value of humanism and the demerits of fighting over caste-creed-religion, and it has been replaced by a poem by Islamist Poet Farrukh Ahmed) many prose and poems by eminent Hindu authors such as Biprodash Barua, Narayan Gangopadhyay and Gyandasa. The Abridging Committee has further decided to change the Cover Page of the English and Bangla text books of Classes 3 and 5 in order to change the drawings of a girl and boy into “Islamic attire”: the girl picking up lotuses will be drawn wearing a hijab (head cover) and full sleeved dress, and the boy rowing the boat will be wearing a payjama (trousers), whereas in the original version the boy was wearing shorts (half-pant) and the girl a short sleeved dress. In the Bangla book for Class 5, there is a drawing of a village lady carrying a water pot: she has a veiled face, but a small part of her back is visible. This part has been concealed by the madrassa board. The Physical Education text book for Class 7 had a chapter on Bratachari Dance with a view to introducing the local cultural diversity of rural Bangladesh, yet this chapter had=s been omitted by the Steering Committee of Madrasa Board. The text book for Class 9-10 contains the short story Toilochitrer Bhut (Ghost of the Oil Painting)by Manik Bandopadhyay. The title was proposed to be changed to replace Bhut by achor ( an Arabic word). However, this proposal was refuted since it opted to change the title, which is non-permissible. It is submitted that this sort of change is irrational, and frustrates the very purpose of reintegrating the diverse curriculum. The madrasa Board defends their position by staying that Whereas 141 Sharifuzzaman, ‘Weird changes introduced to madrassa text books for adaptation’ (
d u   i ad   ! ) The Daily Prothom Alo (Dhaka 10 April 2014) Lalon Shah (1774-1890) was preceptor of baul asceticism, composer and singer of Baul songs. In Bengali culture he has become an icon of religious tolerance whose songs inspired and influenced many poets and social and religious thinkers. See, Wakil Ahmed and Anwarul Karim, ‘Lalon Shah’,(Banglapedia) <http://www.banglapedia.org/HT/L_0037.htm> accessed 7 June 2014 142 Page | 52