Language, a particularly divisive issue in Bangladesh secondary education

In ancient times, Bangladesh was situated in the eastern portion of a huge river delta region and called Bang, where the Ganges and Brahmaputra River systems empty into the Bay of Bengal and Indian Ocean. The region became known as Bengal in more modern times, however Bangladesh was part of the Indian subcontinent known as Bengal, and its history began in the 4th century BC.
According to Worldmark encyclopedia, 2007, Islam came to South Asia in the years following AD 800 but did not reach Bengal until Muslim invaders from the west secured a foothold there around AD 1200. In the 13th and 14th  centuries, after successive waves of Turkish, Persian, and Afghan invaders, Islam began to take a firm hold in the area that is now Bangladesh.
The role of the Bengali Language Movement in 1952 is interlinked with the War of Liberation and also the augment of the Aliya madrasas in this region was the major issue of the Bengali Language Movement. In 1948, the Pakistan government declared Urdu, which developed among the Muslims of North India, as the state language and this resulted in frustration among the people of East Pakistan which is the Bengali nation.
According to Bano (2008), "The Urdu language was viewed as the lingua franca of Indian Muslims. It had developed under Persian, Arabic, and Turkish influence in South Asia during the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal Empire". She claims that Urdu which is based on Arabic scripts was closely linked with the Indian Muslim identity while Bengali remained the dominant language of Bengal. Bano (2008) further notes that this "meant that Bengalis would be at a disadvantage in applying for any government position". This resentment was the catalyst for the 1952 massive protest organised by the Dhaka University students. Clash between the police and the students resulted in the tragic death of several students. The Bengali Movement, the forerunner of the Bengali nationalist movement, emerged from this tragedy and in 1956 Bengali was recognised as the official second language of Pakistan.
Thus, in honour of the Bengali language martyrs, 21st February is observed as the Language Movement Day and it is currently a national holiday in Bangladesh. It is remarkable that this day is now observed as the International Language Day across the world.
In 1971, Bangladesh became a socialist country, and in 1988, Islam was established as the state religion. Though discrimination against non-Muslims is rife, freedom of worship is provided for in the constitution (Bangladesh Constitution No. 2A, 1972). Bangladesh is the world's third most populous democratic Muslim State with a population of 154.7 million (World Bank, 2013), of which about 80% are Muslims and about 12% are Hindus.
Ethnicity is a major issue as there are approximately 45 different ethnic communities living in different parts of Bangladesh (BRAC, 2008) with about 12 tribes inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts. More than half a million people practise a mixture of tribal cults and Buddhist doctrines (Heitzman and Worden, 1989).
It is important to note that nearly 88% of the population are Sunni Muslims, making Bangladesh one of the world's largest Muslim countries. About 10% of the population are Hindus; the remaining are mainly Buddhists or Christians, the latter being mostly Roman Catholics. There are also Biharis (non-Bengali Muslims from India), Arab and Dutch settlers who have adopted the Bengali life style, and a small number of Shia Muslims, Sikhs, Baha'is, Ahmadis, and animists (Worldmark Encyclopedia, 2007).
Bengali (Bangla), a part of the Indo-European language family, is the official language of Bangladesh and is spoken by about 98% of the population. Non-Bengali migrants from India still speak Urdu and Hindi, these  two languages are widely understood in urban areas. The tribal groups of the Chittagong Hill Tracts speak distinct Tibeto-Burmese languages, akin to Burmese and Assamese and demand representation for their identity like other Asian minorities (Kymlica and Baogang, 2005).  Thus, the people of Bangladesh currently speak and write in different versions of Bengali such as Shadhu, Chalito and Ancholik.
Since 1991, political instability has been the main cause of tension in the field of education in Bangladesh. This has negatively affected the development of the education sector, as even though reforms are passed, government policies are still conservative and reforms are rushed through to meet election dates, just like any other political agenda. The language of instruction has been a particularly divisive issue during key historical periods, such as during the Pakistan period, when Urdu was declared the state language, giving rise to the Bengali language movement. Following the 1971 Liberation War, Bengali became the dominant language, marginalising other ethnic and linguistic minorities.
The politics of language choice influences social engineering where language is used as a mechanism for socio-political development. The languages of minorities are politically excluded due to the position of the English language as the medium of communication and a skill for economic development while the Bengali language is the official language and language of instruction in education for the nation.
Although Bengali is the official language now, English is still often used for official and legal purposes and also in business. English has impacted and influenced the growth and development of the Bengali language.  In writing as well as in speaking, apart from English, the Bengali language has borrowed from Turkish, Persian, Urdu, and Hindi. Bengali has different regional dialects and the people of Chittagong, Noakhali, and Sylhet are known for their distinct dialects.
However, educators cannot overlook the problems caused by the withdrawal of the English medium public secondary school system since the liberation war in 1971. It has been more than four decades now and currently, there is a huge gap in the English language proficiency between the urban and rural learners and also a significant difference in performance between the English and Bengali medium educated learners. In consequence, language has become a particularly divisive issue in Bangladesh and it has impact on the secondary education.
Thus, I advocate reverting to the previous bilingual secondary education system where the language of instruction was both Bengali and English in the public secondary school system. This system better prepared learners for higher education and the global job market. As Bangladesh has a multicultural population, educators may be required to teach local dialects or territorial/ethnic languages  in early childhood education but we also need to teach the young learners to speak and write the standard ('promito')  form of Bengali and the English language.
To strengthen the Bangladesh education system, the current government ought to collaborate with other stakeholders in education such as educators, curriculum experts, intellectuals, sociologists, psychologists, and the civil society to prepare a comprehensive, balanced, and sustainable secondary education system with a human capital focus to meet both the national and global agendas.
The writer is a Doctoral student in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) and Research Assistant at University of Toronto, email: [email protected]