Controversy Over Renaming Request and Minister’s Institutional Registry

A proposal to rename Shibganj Pilot Girls’ High School, a 53-year-old educational institution located in the Shibganj Upazila headquarters of Bogra, after the State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development, and Co-operatives, Mir Shahe Alam, has surfaced. The school’s managing committee recently submitted an official application to the Ministry of Education requesting the change to “Shibganj Mir Shahe Alam Pilot Girls’ High School”. The ad-hoc committee submitting the proposal is headed by the Shibganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO), Ziaur Rahman.

State Minister Mir Shahe Alam, who represents the Bogra-2 (Shibganj) constituency, was unavailable for comment. However, his political press secretary, Atiqur Rahman, clarified that the State Minister had already issued a demi-official (DO) letter on 1 June to the Secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division of the Ministry of Education. In the letter, the State Minister explicitly requested that no educational institutions be named after him. He noted that since assuming office, various individuals had initiated renaming proposals for their own vested interests, which he found unwarranted and undesirable. He emphasised that preserving the long-standing heritage, identity, and distinctiveness of historical academic institutions remains paramount.

The DO letter also disclosed that 10 educational institutions are already named after State Minister Mir Shahe Alam and his family members due to their historical philanthropy, land donations, funding, and overall patronage of local education since 1997.

Institutions Named After Mir Shahe Alam and Family

In the concluding section of the letter, the State Minister requested that the ministry reject any further renaming proposals involving his name or his family members.

Concurrently, a letter dated 9 June, signed by Shireen Akhter, Senior Assistant Secretary of the Non-Government Secondary-1 Branch of the Ministry of Education, acknowledged receipt of the renaming proposal. Under Section 14.5 of the “Non-Government Educational Institutions (Junior Secondary, Secondary, and Higher Secondary) Establishment, Teaching, and Academic Recognition Guidelines 2022 (Revised 2023)”, issued on 13 July 2023, the ministry has ordered a physical inspection. The Chairman of the Rajshahi Education Board and the Deputy Commissioner (DC) of Bogra have been instructed to conduct the inspection and submit a comprehensive report detailing logical justifications and specific recommendations.

Shibganj Pilot Girls’ High School was established in 1973 on 74 decimals of land. Speaking to our representative, Motiyar Rahman, the former general secretary of the Upazila BNP and a three-term former chairman of the school’s managing committee, stated that the institution was originally founded by the late former minister and Member of Parliament, Mozaffar Hossain. The land was donated by deceased local education enthusiasts, including Rafiq Uddin Pramanik and Musa Chowdhury. Rahman noted that while both Awami League and BNP leaders had previously served as committee chairs, no prior attempts had ever been made to alter the school’s name.

The school’s current Headmaster, Tajul Islam, stated that the institution operates two streams, including a vocational branch, with 34 teachers and staff members catering to 924 students. He mentioned that despite fulfilling all criteria, the school was excluded from nationalisation in 2018. He added that State Minister Mir Shahe Alam had contributed significantly to the school’s development even before his election, securing 2 million BDT for an auditorium and 700,000 BDT for a prayer room through the Education Engineering Department (EED). Due to these contributions, the managing committee resolved to apply for the renaming. However, the Headmaster claimed that a withdrawal letter was sent on 11 June following the Minister’s objections, though he failed to produce a copy of the document upon request.