‘Rich people should be encouraged to donate in education’ ’

‘Rich people should be encouraged
to donate in education’ ’

Educationist Professor Serajul Islam Choudhury talks to Mushfique Wadud on the new education policy, the challenges in implementing it and the state of the education system in the country

photo by Prito Reza

The present AL-led government had formed a committee to formulate the national education policy who submitted the draft copy of the education policy 2009 on September 7. Since independence, seven such education commissions and committees had been formed, however, none of the policies ever saw the light of day. What do you think are the main challenges to implementing the new education policy?

Unfortunately, politics and bureaucracy are the two main obstacles to implementing these policies. One government prepares a policy and after its tenure ends, the new government brings new ideas into its policy. They even change history. Moreover, some foreign bodies suggest experimental modifications as conditions for providing loans. The bureaucracy collaborates with all of these.

Deadly garbage

Deadly garbage

Mushfique Wadud roams hospitals and pathological centres in the city to investigate the medical waste management procedures adopted in these institutions and talks to experts regarding the risk posed to public health by the haphazard disposal of medical wastes

photo by Prito Reza

An air of uncertainty, even bordering on panic, surrounded onlookers as they caught the rather grotesque sight of a human body-part, floating past them on the Dhanmondi Lake, on July 5. After an autopsy, the Dhanmondi Thana police declared that the body-part in question was a woman’s and was highly infectious.

Solution to traffic woes

Solution to traffic woes

Mushfique Wadud goes through different studies, conducted by government and other organisations, and talks to experts about 10 possible solutions to the intolerable traffic jam situation in the Dhaka city

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

On August 19, a heavy downpour plunged Dhaka under water again aggravating the already bad traffic situation in the city.

Thousands of commuters were seen stranded in Farmgate, waiting for buses and other vehicles. They thronged the lone buses, pushing and shoving each other, that made its way into the area. When some could not find seat or failed to get on a bus despite waiting for one for over hours, they broke the glasses of some of these vehicles and beat up the bus-conductors. They even threw water at those who secured seats inside the buses, as if they were their sworn enemies.

Pending salaries and unrest in the RMG sector

Pending salaries and unrest
in the RMG sector

Mushfique Wadud investigates the causes behind the recent garment factory workers’ unrest in Fatullah, Narayanganj and talks to leaders of the country’s Ready-Made Garments sector on how damaging an impact such uproars could have on the sector and ways to prevent such turmoil in future

photo by Prito Reza

On August 25, reports of the latest episode of unrest among workers of a garment factory surfaced as hundreds of workers of the Auto Textile Knitwear Limited, in Lalpur, at the Fatullah industrial hub, Narayanganj, took to the streets in protest.

The workers had been at loggerheads with the factory owners over their impending salaries, which culminated into demonstrations. The workers’, prompted the police to charge in and disperse the protestors, quashing chances of workers taking any violent meas

The hazards of safety

The hazards of safety
Mushfique Wadud finds out from experts whether the construction and maintenance of embankments in the country is appropriate for fighting floods, while also reflecting on the long-term environmental hazards

Mohammad Islam/DrikNEWS

On July 17, the hard point of the Sirajganj town protection embankment caved in, the second collapse in a week. The first collapse took place on July 10, this year.

Despite being built only 12 years back, between 1995 and 1999 by the Hyundai Corporation at a cost of Tk 332 crore and with a 100-year guarantee, the embankment is now in ruins.

However, on July 16, just a day before the second collapse, Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) director general Abul Kalam Azad informed Xtra that the Sirajganj town protection embankment had overcome all risks. ‘. We will protect the embankment at any cost,’In spite of numerous river training and flood control projects in the country, like the Sirajganj embankment, the condition of these projects are in a sorry state. Despite boastful guarantees, most of these projects collapse or fail within a decade or so, plunging residents of these areas into hopelessness and a constant threat of flood like the ones during 1998 and 2004.

Failing the lingua franca

photo by Prito Reza

Failing the lingua franca

by Mushfique Wadud

This is a letter from the examination script of a class nine student of Bangladesh Bank Model High School. His teacher reveals that he wrote this after memorising it beforehand. Despite memorising, he still succumbs to such mistakes. ‘If he wrote the letter on the script without memorising, there would be even more mistakes,’ the teacher says, sighing. Like him, many students write incorrect and meaningless sentences in their scripts which are humorous to readers.

While this is funny to read, it is just another unsavoury instance of the nation’s sorry state of English language efficiency. This plague is not only confined to schools, but in every level of education, job applications, invitation cards, texts and even on social networking sites such as Facebook establishing the fact that the whole nation lacks knowledge of the English language. As important books in any subject are in English, students struggle to acquire proper knowledge in science, business studies and other important subject matter affecting the overall education system.

This deficiency is especially unfortunate because people of this region had long been known for their remarkable efficiency in the English language. It is in fact, a widely known truth that before the liberation war, people had a strong command of English. However, after the emergence of Bangladesh, the policymakers adopted education policies which emphasised greatly on Bengali while defocusing on the English curriculum.

Death in a foreign land

Death in a foreign land

Mushfique Wadud investigates the recent rise in death among expatriate workers and the probable causes behind the high number of such tragic incidents

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

On April 5, when Tajmahal’s mobile rang, she received the call with eager excitement as she anticipated her husband calling from abroad. Her husband, Jaynal Abedin, had been living in Malaysia for the past three years.

Her heart, however, broke to pieces as the caller informed her of the demise of her husband. An expatriate Bangladeshi wage earner, Jaynal Abdin died of a heart attack in Malaysia on April 5. She could not believe the news as she had spoken to him over the phone just a day before.

A life less ordinary

A life less ordinary

On June 17, the country lost one of its most celebrated sons as Gaziul Haque passed away after prolonged illness. A language-movement hero, freedom fighter, lawyer, writer and a family man, Mushfique Wadud chronicles the multi-faceted life of the man that was Gaziul Haque

Following the declaration of the Basic Principles Committee of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan to impose Urdu as the only state language of Pakistan – a stance reiterated in a public meeting at Paltan Maidan, Dhaka, by Prime Minister Nazimuddin, on January 26, 1952, a wave of agitation sparks off among people of East Pakistan. To counter the growing unrest, an order under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code prohibiting processions and meetings in Dhaka City is sanctioned.

A high price to pay

A high price to pay

Mushfique Wadud digs deep into what led to the recent protest by the students of North South University and finds out why the fees of private universities are going up while the quality of education is under question

photo by Ma Raquib Khan

On May 10, the premises of North South University, the country’s first private university, were hounded by several hundred of its students as they staged daylong demonstrations through the course of which, a number of offices on the campus including the vice chancellor’s was vandalised.

Rejected over-bridges

Rejected over-bridges

Mushfique Wadud investigates the condition of Dhaka’s over-bridges and finds out why pedestrians refuse to use them

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

‘Mom, what is that?’
‘It is an over-bridge, my child.’
‘What is it for, Mom?’
‘It is a safe way to cross the road.’
‘Then why aren’t we using it?’

‘You’re talking too much today. We are in hurry, let’s go.’
Read more at the link

http://www.newagebd.com/2008/sep/19/sep19/xtra_inner3.html

Inexpensive, but potentially dangerous

Inexpensive, but potentially dangerous

Mushfique Wadud and Ariful Islam Mithu reveal the need for reforms in the qoumi madrassah education system, which still follows a curriculum from the Mughal period

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

Yusuf was not born in a well to do family. His father always struggled to provide for and manage their big family, and so when it was time to send Yusuf to school; he was sent to a qoumi madrassah, where his father hardly had to pay anything.
Read more at http://www.newagebd.com/2009/may/08/may08/xtra_inner3.html

In the name of ‘student politics’

In the name of ‘student politics

Mushfique Wadud, Khamin and Mohiuddin Alamgir list the various illegal businesses that make student politics so dear to the average student

photos by Al-Emrun Garjon

Riaz Uddin always dreamt of making his son a doctor. So when his son, Abul Kalam Asad Rajib came tenth on the SSC examinations merit list, he considered it the first step in the fulfilment of his dream. Rajib, second of Riaz’s three sons, soon got admitted to Dhaka Medical College. Everything was going according to plan and Riaz only had to wait a few years to become ‘a doctor’s father’.

But soon Rajib became involved in student politics during the early years of his medical college life. He was made general secretary of the Bangladesh Chhatra League in the DMC unit. This year, Rajib was killed in a factional clash of the Bangladesh Chhatra League, the ruling Awami League’s student front on March 31, 2009, ending the life of a brilliant student and shattering Riaz’s dreams.

Read more at

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/may/15/may15/xtra_cover.html

Ambition, corrupt ion and nepotism

Ambition, corrupt ion
and nepotism

Mushfique Wadud and Khamin reveal the gross irregularities and nepotism that revolve around the second-largest NGO in the country, Proshika and Qazi Faruque, its controversial chairman

photo by Prito Reza

Abul Kashem Palash, the acting director of Proshika Manobik Unnayan Kendra, was arrested by the law enforcement authorities just after the declaration of the state of emergency in the country on January 11, 2007 for being involved in anti-social activities during the pre-election violence from October to December 2006 as well as in the Awami League leader Abdul Jalil’s infamous ‘trump card’ deadline.
Read more at

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/may/22/may22/xtra_cover.html

Keeping prices at bay

Keeping prices at bay

The prices have soared for almost all food items persistently, sometimes artificially increased through syndicates and sometimes putting up with the international market. An effective strategy is what people look forward from the newly elected government – a strategy that would discuss solutions more than meetings, roundtables and bluffs. Mushfique Wadud asks policymakers and eminent economists for their prescriptions to control the price hike

Abul Maal Abdul Muhith
Former finance minister
At present prices of food items in the international market are stable. I am confident I can control the food prices if I take the helm of finance ministry. How?
We have a six-point programme in our manifesto that will control the prices of food items. Many importers continue to sell goods at a higher price reasoning their sale from earlier stocks. This has to be checked thoroughly.
Read more at

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/jan/02/jan02/xtra_inner3.html

Redefining hand-to-mouth

Redefining hand-to-mouth

Prior to the implementation of the seventh pay commission, Musfequr Rahman and Mushfique Wadud talk to government officials, from five different professions, and find out about their individual battle for survival against rocketing prices of essentials, house rent, educational expenses, with their given salary scales

photo by Prito Reza

The growing financial crisis of the last two years has hit the poorer sections in the country hard, but it has also done damage to those with fixed income salaries who are growing poorer at a higher rate, as the currency devalues and prices shoot upwards. Even in mid-2008, inflation fluctuated to two-digit numbers; accounting for the prices spiral of essentials, house-rent, transportation, education and other necessary items.
Read more at

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/jan/23/jan23/xtra_cover.html

Helping hands that help themselves

Helping hands that
help themselves

Mushfique Wadud reveals the gross irregularities undermining the Mother and Neonatal Health (MNH) project proposal prepared by UNFPA, UNICEF and WHO, challenging the philanthropic appearance of such ventures

photos by Prito Reza

The United Nations agencies in Bangladesh have time and again accused the public departments and other authorities in Bangladesh of irregularities and corruption.

But this time, the project ‘Accelerating Progress towards Maternal and Neonatal Mortality and Morbidity Reduction’ has provided the Bangladeshi counterparts ample reasons to point fingers at these agencies now. Sources from the Health and Family Welfare Ministry inform New Age how the project proposal lacks accountability and transparency.
Read more at

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/jan/16/jan16/xtra_inner2.html

Education inflation

Education inflation

Sharmin Chowdhury and Mushfique Wadud investigate the allegations against education institutions charging over-the-top admission fees in the name of development despite a government declaration regulating such, their defiance of the country’s education laws, and reveal where the excess amount is actually spent

photo by Prito Reza

‘I have to spend Tk 9800 for my daughter’s admission. She began school for the first time this year.

Read more at http://www.newagebd.com/2009/mar/13/mar13/xtra_inner2.html

Our manpower export market is in deep trouble

‘Our manpower export market
is in deep trouble’

President of Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (BAIRA) Ghulam Mustafa tells Mushfique Wadud how the labour market is prone to be adversely hit this year because of global recession and that it is high time to reform the Bangladesh missions and embassies

photo by Prito Reza

On February 23, BAIRA expressed the view that the current global recession might cut the outflow of Bangladeshi workers almost by half by the end of 2009. But earlier media reports suggested that global recession won’t have an impact on Middle-Eastern countries and therefore it would not affect our manpower export market. What is your take on this?

From BAIRA, we apprehended such after considering the present situation. In fact Malaysia and Singapore have stopped giving visa to migrant workers.

Read more at http://www.newagebd.com/2009/mar/13/mar13/xtra_inner5.html

Trying to become Dilip Kumar

Trying to become Dilip Kumar

Chashi Nazrul Islam tells Mushfique Wadud that his films on the war of independence are his greatest achievement and reveals where he got his very original name

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

Little Tinu goes to Mumbai to become a hero like Dilip Kumar, though he has no idea about the place and does not know anyone there.

He leaves his home without letting anyone know of his journey to Mumbai. In Mumbai he meets a well-wisher who tells him to return after completing his Masters degree, after which she would help him become a hero. Tinu returns to his home in Jamshedpur, India.
Read more at

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/apr/10/apr10/xtra_inner6.html

Dissecting an artificial crisis

Dissecting an artificial crisis

Mushfique Wadud and Ahmed Sadek Yousuf Siad reveal that the simulated textbook crisis that has plagued the country’s students for the last two months and regularly recurs each year is a cumulative problem that all parties concerned create

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

The boy is going from one shop to the other. He asks the salesperson for something and then leaves the shop frustrated.

It can be understood that he did not get the answer he was looking for. Sweating and tired, the boy moves to another shop. A sign of relief comes over his face as he has found what he was looking for.
Read more at

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/mar/06/mar06/xtra_inner4.html

Deadly waters

Deadly waters

Surrounded by rivers, liberally scattered with tube wells and equipped with water treatment plants and a sewage and supply system, Mushfique Wadud unveils the dirty and diseased state of Dhaka’s water system, where gross neglect, lack of repair, shirking of responsibility and hardly any resources allows water contamination at multiple points, leaving the city’s residents with water everywhere but not a drop to drink

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

‘During the liberation war my mother was going to one of her aunts’ house. She felt thirsty. At that time it was really difficult for her to drink water as she was on her brother’s shoulder.

Suddenly they found a pond, water of which, was simply undrinkable but she had to drink water from that pond and they considered it a safe place. Now when she wants to make ablutions with the water from the WASA supply line, she finds no difference between the bad odours of the two.’ Mita says. She and her family live in Mirpur-6.

Read more at http://www.newagebd.com/2008/oct/31/oct31/xtra_cover.html

Sculpting Bangladesh

Sculpting Bangladesh

Mushfique Wadud searches out the stories behind the most significant sculptures of Bangladesh, the majority of which are monuments to the struggle and spirit of independence, and learns why each and every one is indispensable to our heritage and identity

photo by Prito Reza

On October 18, the chairman of a faction of Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ), Fazlul Haq Amini, on behalf of the Islami Ain Bastobayon Committee threatened to pull down every single statue around the country declaring that the establishment of statues were against the principles of Islam.
You can read it in the following link

http://www.newagebd.com/2008/nov/28/nov28/xtra_cover.html

A fresh start

A fresh start

Mushfique Wadud visits the Dhaka Central Jail to investigate what is being done in the prison system to prepare inmates for life after incarceration

photo by Prito Reza

Rafiqul Islam was once a popular young man and a good student. In class nine, he came to be associated with local crime leaders in the Rajarbagh area of Dhaka, where he lived with his family. He was caught hiding a firearm for one of these criminals by the authorities and was soon incarcerated. After his release, ten years later, he wanted to lead a normal life, but he could not find any job. Everyone considered him to be a threat to their establishment. After trying hard for three months, he returned to a life of crime. His time in prison gave him an in-depth education on criminal activities and he is now a prominent criminal in his area.
You can read it in the following link
http://www.newagebd.com/2008/nov/28/nov28/xtra_inner3.html

No freedom for them

No freedom for them

Mushfique Wadud visits the Freedom Fighter’s Rest and Medical Centre and Freedom Fighter’s Complex and returns with harrowing tales of hand-to-mouth survival, blatant neglect of freedom fighters, corruption, nepotism, insecurity and criminal activities

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

‘Real wounded freedom fighters are leading a very miserable life in their villages. Real freedom fighters cannot stay in this Rest and Medical Centre when they need.
You can read it in the following link

http://www.newagebd.com/2008/dec/19/dec19/xtra_inner2.html

Old age home No families come visiting

Old age home
No families come visiting

by Mushfique Wadud

photo by Sheikh Rajibul Islam

‘Once on Eid day I woke my children up very early in the morning. They did not wake up from the first call. I had to struggle to wake them. Then I bathed them with my own hands.

And they could not wear their new dresses that I bought them with my hard-earned money so I and their mother helped them wear the new dresses. Afterwards I took my sons to the Eidgah (where Eid prayers are said) in their new clothes though I went to say my Eid prayer wearing very old clothes. After the prayer when we came to our house, their mother and I fed them shemai with our own hands. Our whole day was spent looking after them on Eid day. But now they have no time to meet me on Eid Day,’ says Shamsul Huq Khondoker. He is one of the many unlucky senior citizens in Boyoshko O Shishu Punorbashon Kendro (BOSHIPUK).

You can read it in the following link

http://www.newagebd.com/2008/dec/19/dec19/xtra_inner3.html

Jobs at your finger-tips

Jobs at your finger-tips

Mushfique Wadud browses the internet and comes across sites that have made job-search easier for thousands of Bangladeshis over the past few years

Nahid seemed to have reached the moon as soon as the advertisement on the newspaper caught his eyes. It was probably the answer to his prayers and of three months of job-searching.
You can read it in the following link

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/feb/13/feb13/xtra_inner4.html

Judging a book’s cover

Judging a book’s cover

With 6000 book cover designs under his belt, enigmatic illustrator Dhrubo Esh belittles the importance of a book’s cover
to Mushfique Wadud

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

At 2am, a middle-aged man sits on a bench of a tea-stall. He lights his fifth cigarette and requests the tea-stall owner to give him another cup of tea. There is no one there except the tea-stall owner.

The man is clad in a yellow punjabi with a shawl wrapped around his body. He is not wearing any shoes. After a while he leaves for an unknown destination. He is the typical bohemian of Humayan Ahmed’s invention, Him

You can read it in the following link

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/feb/13/feb13/xtra_inner6.html

Licensed to kill

Licensed to kill

Mushfique Wadud exposes the plethora of extrajudicial killings by RAB and other law-enforcement officials during the tenure of the military-backed interim government

On July 15 last year, Mosiul Alam Sentu was returning home from a hunger strike on the Dhaka University campus.
You can read this in the following link-

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/feb/13/feb13/xtra_cover.html

‘I won against Pakistan but lost to poverty’

‘I won against Pakistan
but lost to poverty’

Mushfique Wadud searches out Kakon Bibi, a Khasia woman and wife of a Pakistani soldier who helped the Mukti Bahini win over 20 battles until her eventual capture, torture, abandonment and poverty...

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

It is 1971. A secret midnight meeting is going on at Dowarapara Thana, Chhatak Upazilla of Sunamganj district. Silence and darkness permeate. The plan is to capture the enemy camp at Tengratilla. The Pakistani soldiers from this camp have been carrying out attacks on the Mukti Bahini for too long. But the Mukti Bahini commander has no information about the capacity or numbers of the enemy. Everyone at the meeting is tense. No one speaks. The long silence is broken by a woman.

You can read this in the following link

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/mar/26/mar26/xtra_cover.html

Remnants of the golden fibre

Remnants of the golden fibre

Mushfique Wadud finds out the viability of the jute sector and the mismanagement, the government policies and the World Bank connection in the whole fiasco, which has nearly crippled the sector

photo by Shafiq Islam, Bogra/DrikNEWS

Raju, a grocery shop-owner at the Mirpur 6 kitchen market, is still looking forward to the arrival of jute bag suppliers to his shop at the market.
See it in the following link

http://www.newagebd.com/2009/apr/03/apr03/xtra_cover.html

Warning bells for the labour export market

Mushfique Wadud reveals the sorry state of Bangladesh’s foreign human resource market as more workers are being deported from UAE and Malaysia almost every day

photo by Al-Emrun Garjon

Rafiqul Islam returned home from Malaysia with empty hands. He could not bring the little amount of money he earned in Malaysia in the last six months since he had to leave the country for fear of being caught by law enforcement forces.