The education ministry dissolved the ten-member coordination committee responsible for updating and changing textbooks two weeks after its establishment.
The Secondary and Higher Education Division ordered the committee’s dissolution on Saturday in the midst of debates and criticism regarding a few of its members.
The decree stated, “The education ministry has dissolved the coordination committee it formed on Sept. 15 to ensure the revision and amendment of all textbooks printed and prepared by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board.”
The committee, under the leadership of KM Kabirul Islam, Additional Secretary of the Education Ministry, included education researcher Rakhal Raha, Professor Kamrul Hasan Mamun from Dhaka University’s physics department, Professor Mohammad Azam from the Bengali department, Associate Professor Samina Lutfa Nitra from the sociology department, Additional Secretary Masud Akhtar Khan from the primary and mass education ministry, NCTB Chairman AKM Riazul Hasan, NCTB Curriculum Committee Member Rabiul Kabir Chowdhury, and NCTB Primary Curriculum Member AFM Sarwar Jahan.
Md. Yanur Rahman, Senior Assistant Secretary, Secondary and Higher Education Division, served as the committee’s member secretary.
Concerns raised about members Raha, Nitra, and Mamun on social media and by various organizations led to the dissolution of the committee.
However, the order did not mention the formation of a new committee or the reasons for the committee’s dissolution.
The interim government announced plans to revise and improve the previous textbooks as part of its reform agenda after the student-led movement led to a change in government.
The committee’s responsibility was to successfully revise and coordinate each free textbook that the NCTB published.
