A large number of educational institutions in the country do not have Shaheed Minars for paying homage to language movement martyrs, who sacrificed their lives to establish Bangla as a state language of the then Pakistan in 1952.
Teachers and students face difficulties to pay their respect to the martyrs on various national days, including National Martyrs Day, also observed as International Mother Language Day, on February 21.
Sometimes, authorities of the institutions build makeshift Shaheed Minars, or share the Shaheed Minars on their premises with other institutions.
The teachers and authorities concerned blamed fund and space crisis for the situation.
According to the Annual Primary School Census 2022, conducted by the Directorate of Primary Education, there are 1,14,539 government and non-government primary educational institutions in the country, of which 65,567 are government-owned.
Currently, according to the directorate, the number of Shaheed Minars at primary-level educational institutions, government and non-government, is 34,854 or 30.42 per cent.
The number of government primary schools with Shaheed Minars is 26,699 or 40.72 per cent.
Among the 64 districts, Mymensingh has the highest number of educational institutions at 1,850 that have Shaheed Minars, followed by 1,720 in Dinajpur and 1,379 in Bogura.
Meherpur comes last in the list with only nine primary educational institutions having Shaheed Minars in their compound, followed by 28 in Bandarban and 46 in Bhola.
The scenario is slightly improved in the cases of secondary-level educational institutions.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, in 2023, out of total 35,225 government and non-government secondary-level schools, schools and colleges, colleges, madrasahs, and technical institutions, 18,128 or 51.46 per cent have Shaheed Minars.
New Age correspondents shared the scenario in different districts.
Nilkhet High School and Nilkhet Govt Primary School in the capital, situated in the same compound, have no Shaheed Minars on their premises.
Nilkhet Govt Primary School head teacher Jannatul Naima and high school head teacher Md Surman Ali said that they had plans but did not build one as they take children to the nearby central Shaheed Minar.
Dhanmondi-2-Number Girls Govt Primary School and Dhanamondi High School in Hatirpool area share one Shaheed Minar.
New Age staff correspondent in Rajshahi reported that about 41 per cent of government and non-government primary and secondary-level educational institutions do not have Shaheed Minars.
According to the Rajshahi district primary and secondary education offices, 481 out of 1,057 government primary schools in the district have no language monument, while only 232 out of 908 secondary and higher secondary-level educational institutions have it.
Khandakar Md Jahedur Rahman, head teacher of Mohammadpur Govt Primary School under Bagmara municipality area in the district, said that they could not build a Shaheed Minar due to lack of funds.
‘We build makeshift monuments to pay homage to the martyrs,’ he said.
Julekha Khatun, head teacher of Bhawaniganj Model Govt Primary School in Bagmara upazila, said that they have not built the monument as they share their school compound with a high school that has one.
Sahara Nasrin, head teacher of Kadirganj Govt. Primary School in Rajshahi city, said that they went to another school to pay homage as there is no space in their school compound to build a Shaheed Minar.
Meanwhile, the Shaheed Minars in some schools in Rajshahi city have been found unclean and in a lack-of-maintenance state.
New Age correspondent in Rangpur reported that many of the educational institutions of the district do not have Shaheed Minars.
The District Primary Education office said that out of 1,455 government primary schools in Rangpur, 701 or 48.17 per cent schools do not have Shaheed Minars.
District education officer Enayet Hossain said that there are no shaheed minars in at least 30 per cent educational institutions.
Md Faker Sarker, head teacher of Arazi Shahbaj High School, said that they observe the day by constructing a makeshift Shaheed Minar.
Ashraful Alam, principal, Lalkuti Girls High School and College, said that although the institution was established in 1969, they have no Shaheed Minar till now and that they take their students to the Central Shaheed Minar of Rangpur city every year to pay homage.
Principal of Carmichael Collegiate School and College, Rangpur, Abdul Wahed said that many young learners are being deprived of knowing the real history of the language movement due to absence of Shaheed Minars on the school campus.
New Age staff correspondent in Sylhet reported that many of the primary and secondary-level educational institutions in Sylhet have not yet constructed the Shaheed Minars.
Md Abdul Basit, headmaster of Zahir-Tahir Memorial High School in the city’s Dakshin Surma area, said that they could not build a Shaheed Minar because of space shortage.
‘A structure like the Shaheed Minar made with iron rods has been kept ready for occasional use,’ he said.
A teacher of the city’s Kadmatoli Government Primary School said that they could not build one due to budget crisis.
New Age correspondent in Cumilla reported that most of the government primary and secondary-level madrasahs in different upazilas do not have Shaheed Minars.
In some of these institutions, temporary Shaheed Minars are made with banana stems, or bamboo and wood.
According to the district primary education office, out of 2,107 government primary schools 1,238 or 58.75 per cent do not have Shaheed Minars.
In cases of the secondary-level madrasahs, out of 377 madrashas, 259 or 68.7 per cent do not have this monument.
Directorate of Primary Education director general Shah Rezwan Hayat said that the existing Shaheed Minars were built with the schools authorities’ funds or donations from the locally influential people.
‘We are planning to take a project to build Shaheed Minars in the schools. The monuments will be built soon in the government education institutions, he added.
He also said that there is no rule to build Shaheed Minars in the educational institutions, but it has been done to inspire patriotism among the children.
