Students of 1,039 government primary schools in Jessore have been paying tribute to the language martyrs by setting up a temporary Shaheed Minar using banana tree or soil as they have no permanent Shaheed Minar.
According to the district education office, there are 1,289 government primary schools in the eight upazilas of the district.
Of these, 250 government primary schools are in Sadar upazila, 139 in Chaugachha, 158 in Keshabpur, 125 in Sharsha, 117 in Abhaynagar, 267 in Manirampur and 102 in Bagharpara upazilas.
Among those, there are Shaheed Minars in eight primary schools in Chaugachha upazila, 19 schools in Jhikargachha, 17 in Keshabpur, 24 in Sharsha, 53 in Abhaynagar, 85 in Manirampur and 20 schools in Bagharpara upazila.
Sources at the district education office said suggestion was given to establish Shaheed Minar at the school premises after collecting funds from locals and no allocations were given separately for that.
However, the teachers said it is too difficult to collect funds from local people for establishing a Shaheed Minar and it needs several thousand takas for establishing a Shaheed Minar which is not possible with fund collecting from local people.
Prof Amirul Alam Khan, former chairman of Jessore education board, said: “Primary schools are fully funded by the government. For this reason, the government is solely responsible for the construction of the Shaheed Minar. The Shaheed Minar should be built at the initiative of the government.”
Sadar Upazila Primary Education Officer Ismail Hossain said it is important to have a Shaheed Minar in every primary school but it could not be established due to lack of government allocation.
He also stressed the need for government allocation for Shaheed Minar.
Ashraful Alam, district primary education officer, said the school authorities should take measures to collect funds locally as Bangladesh is the only country in the world where people sacrificed lives for the language and the Shaheed Minar need to be built to honour language martyrs.
