educational institutions by emphasizing Bengali in ‘all spheres of life’.75 Both urdu and English were removed from the public use. Madrassa education was institutionalized by an ordinance in 1978, and during the martial law regime there was a trend of Islamizing the entire system. During General Ershad’s rule and afterwards there has been unplanned mushrooming of Madrassa/religious schools in Bangladesh. Religious education was used as a tool for attracting votes of religious people and to beat the secular opposition in electoral politics. The Ershad regime made Islamic studies compulsory up to the secondary level amid strong opposition from secular and left leaning parties. 76 The regime patronized Madrassa education from primary to higher secondary level with government recognition.77 In case of English medium schools, the initial journey was bumpy. After independence, all English medium schools were abolished. 78 This led to a serious decline in the standard of English in Bangladesh. 79 This created a substantial vacuum foe the elite section of the society and the nouveau riche who did not want to send their children to government run Bangla medium schools.80 This led to rapid establishment of English medium schools in the private sector creating the parallel running English medium educational system. The Bangla medium and the English medium- these two systems have created what can be called a ‘linguistic divide’ between those who have an ownership over English and those who don’t.81 This proliferation ultimately led to the establishment of tertiary level institutions in the private sector in 1990s: the Private universities which till date appear to be the first choice of the Ebglish medim students who for various reasons82 do not opt for Public Universities. Rahela Banu, R and Roland Sussex, English in Bangladesh after Independence:Dynamics of policy and practice (Oxford University Press, Victoria 2001)128 <https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/eserv/UQ:68356/Sussex_2001_English.pdf> accessed 19 May 2014 Styrbjön Gustavsson, Primary Education in Bangladesh:Review, Analysis and Recommendations,(Education Division Document, SIDA 1991) M. Mustafizur Rahman (n 46) Banu and Sussex (n 75) 132 ibid, 132 ibid, 130 ibid, 131 See chapter 4 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 Page | 29