Out of 1,289 government primary schools in Jashore, 1,039 do not have Shaheed Minars. Only 250 primary schools have such a structure, according to district primary education office data.

In schools without a Shaheed Minar, students pay their respects at temporary structures made from banana trees, wood, or at Shaheed Minars of other institutions.

The central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka commemorates the Language Movement of 1952 and people across Bangladesh pay their respects on the February 21 to the language martyrs.

Read more

2 arrested for demolition of Shaheed Minar in Jashore

According Jashore education office data, the district has 1,289 government primary schools in its eight sub-districts.

The data showed that in Sadar upazila, out of 250 schools, 24 have a Shaheed Minar. In Chougachha, only 8 of 139 schools are equipped with one, while in Jhikargachha 19 of 131 schools have a memorial.

In Keshabpur, merely 17 of 158 schools have a Shaheed Minar, and in Sharsha, 24 of 125 schools have one. Abhaynagar has 53 out of 117 schools with Shaheed Minars, Manirampur has 85 out of 267, and Bagharpara has only 20 out of 102 schools.

Officials have advised every government primary school to collect local donations to build Shaheed Minars, but there is no separate allocation for this.

Teachers argued that collecting donations locally is difficult and that significant funds are needed, which are not possible to raise locally.

Professor Amirul Alam Khan, former chairman of the Jashore Education Board, said, "Primary schools run entirely on government funding. Therefore, the responsibility for the construction of Shaheed Minars lies entirely with the government. Shaheed Minars should be built on government initiative."

Read more

‘Dhaka’s law and order situation quite stable’

Ashraful Alam, district primary education officer said, "Since there is no government allocation for the construction of Shaheed Minars, many schools do not have one. Even then, all school authorities will be encouraged to raise money locally to build a Shaheed Minar."

Abdul Jabbar, head teacher of Dattapara Government Primary School in Dewara Union of Jashore Sadar upazila, said, " The Shaheed Minar is a memorial to the sacrifice of the lives of language martyrs in Bangladesh, the only country with an example of people giving their lives for language. However, there is no allocation for the construction of Shaheed Minars."

"It is impossible to build a Shaheed Minar by raising thousands of taka locally. It is not possible to build a Shaheed Minar in all primary schools except with government funding," he added.