Government planning employment for Qawmi students at home and abroad: PM

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has informed that the government is planning to introduce technical and vocational education or training with the aim of creating employment opportunities for the students of Qawmi madrasas at home and abroad. He informed this in reply to a supplementary question of Cumilla-6 constituency Member of Parliament Md. Monirul Haque Chowdhury in the National Parliament on Wednesday (September 2).

The prime minister said, “The government is planning to arrange technical and vocational training with the aim of creating employment opportunities for the students of Qawmi madrasas at home and abroad.”

The parliament session started at 3:30pm under the chairmanship of Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmad. After that in the prime minister’s question-answer session he directly answered four written questions and six supplementary questions in the first 30 minutes.

In reply to a starred question of Monirul Haque, the prime minister said that a decision was taken through a gazette notification in 2006 to form a permanent institution named ‘Qawmi Madrasah Education Board Bangladesh’ for the coordination, development and conducting of public examinations of all Qawmi madrasas.

Later under Al-Haiatul Ulya Lil-Jamiyatil Qawmiyah Bangladesh, the government enacted a law in 2018 giving equivalence of the Dawra-e-Hadith (Takmil) certificate of Qawmi madrasas to postgraduate degree in Islamic Studies and Arabic and took the decision to establish six Qawmi Madrasah Education Boards.

Those six boards are Befaqul Madarisil Arabia Bangladesh, Befaqul Madarisil Qawmiyah Gauhordanga Bangladesh, Anjumane Ittehadul Madaris Bangladesh (Qawmi Madrasah Education Board), Azad Dini Edara-e-Taalim Bangladesh Board, Tanzimul Madarisid Diniyah Bangladesh and National Dini Madrasah Education Board Bangladesh.

Tarique Rahman informed that the certificates of the six Qawmi Madrasah Education Boards received recognition on June 23 after the amendment of the ‘Private Educational Institutions (Madrasah) Manpower Structure and MPO Policy, 2026’.

As a result, those holding the certificates of Ilmul Qirat or Hifzul Quran along with the Dawra-e-Hadith (Takmil) degree of Qawmi madrasas have become eligible for appointment to the posts of Assistant Maulavi (Qari) and Ibtedayi Qari, he also informed.

In reply to another question of Lakshmipur-2 constituency Member of Parliament Abul Khayer Bhuiyan regarding including more Arabic subjects in the general education curriculum, the prime minister said religious education is already part of the regular curriculum and the government can review how it can be further improved.

Besides, in reply to a supplementary question of Kurigram-3 constituency Member of Parliament Md. Mahbubul Alam regarding the nationalisation of Ibtedayi madrasas, Tarique Rahman called on him to give a separate notice on this matter.

He further said, if you give me a separate notice, I will properly examine the matter and present detailed information in parliament.