Despite the fierce debate across the country, Sharifa’s story remains in the seventh standard textbook in the new curriculum. The expert committee did not find any controversy in the story even though there were many criticisms and controversies about the story in the classroom and social media from the beginning. As a result, Sharifa’s story remains in the text book by changing the name and language.
According to National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) sources, Sharifa’s story is still included in the seventh standard textbook despite various controversies. But it may undergo linguistic minimal changes. Experts find nothing ‘controversial’ in that story. ‘Story of Sharifa’ is kept as part of the lesson in ‘History and Social Science’ book of class VII.
Note that in the light of the new curriculum and the new curriculum, a story named ‘Sharif to Sharifa’ has been added to a chapter called ‘Similarities and Differences in Humans’ in the seventh grade history and social science book. Which was being discussed and criticized in various quarters. From the beginning of the academic year, this controversial story started a fierce debate across the country. Later, the Ministry of Education formed a five-member committee on January 24 to review the matter and provide opinions on the matter. After about three months, the committee finalized its report and gave an opinion on keeping the story in the curriculum, according to related sources.
The convener of this five-member review committee Abdur Rashid of Islamic Arabic University (ERB) said, ‘We will submit the report to the ministry very soon. Five of us will give a collective opinion. Work is underway on this.’
NCTB Member (Education) Professor Md Mashiuzzaman is in charge of the member secretary of this committee. The three members of the committee are – Islamic Foundation Governor Kafil Uddin Sarkar, Dhaka University IER Director Professor Abdul Halim and Dhaka Government Aliya Madrasa Principal Abdur Rashid.
Several officials associated with the committee said on condition of anonymity that some ‘questions’ were raised about the new curriculum by Qaumi Madrasa-based organization Hefazet Islam. But the curriculum of Qaumi Madrasa has nothing in common with the curriculum of government recognized Aliya Madrasa.
In this regard, an official said, the government administration has no involvement with the subjects or curriculum in the Qaumi Madrasa. The curriculum taught in general education is also not taught in Qaumi Madrasas. For this reason, the education administration is reluctant to give much importance to the objections of Qaumi Alem and Hefazat Islam regarding general education. Several top officials of the education administration claim that there is an unnecessary debate on the story of ‘Sharif to Sharif’.
In this regard, National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) Chairman Professor Farhadul Islam said that the government has given recognition (in 2013) to ‘transgenders’ because they are part of the society. Stating that the book has been ‘reviewed’ three times, he said that during the book review, he was an ‘inclusion specialist, gender specialist’. They analyzed everything. NCTB chairman said that what is given in the book is ‘need of time’.
