BANGLADESHI HINDU BUDDHIST & CHRISTIANS UNITY COUNCILE EUROPE (An ethno religious minority & tribal civil rights advocacy group) & HUMAN RIGHTS CONGRESS FOR BANGLADESH MINORITIES(HRCBM), An NGO in Special Consultative Status with the United Nations. . "2008 Forum on Minority Issues" Conference in the United Nations CH-1201 Geneva, Switzerland. 15th to 17th December 2008 Subject: "Minorities and the Right to Education" Submitted by: Mr. Amarendra Roy, President of BHBCUC Europe and Director HRCBM-EU Board & External Relations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Honourable President, Distinguished Ladies & Gentlemen, Good morning. The process of Islamization during Zia and Ershad regimes in Bangladesh renewed the flow of minorities due to unequal application of Law humiliation, discrimination in service and violation of human rights. The term 'minority' refers to disadvantaged group of citizens, who are not the privileged ones, at the top, but the under-privileged at the bottom. (Atlantes Magazine, 29th January1975). In case of Bangladesh, minorities can be classified as religious and ethno-religious. Persons belonging to religious minorities have a faith which is different to that held by the majority whereas ethno-religious minority may have languages and/or religious faith that is different than that held by the majority. Minorities and the Right to Education in Bangladesh: Minorities both religious and ethno-religious minorities are subject to state sponsored discrimination when it comes to rights to education. Let’s consider the case of indigenous people of Bangladesh, most of the children from indigenous ethnic minority groups are disadvantaged by an education system that does not recognize their language, culture or future livelihood realities. For these reasons the majority of ethnic indigenous children quickly lose interest in school and leave. When they enter school they are taught in a language they do not know or understand. As a result the dropout rate for indigenous children in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is much higher than the estimated national rate with more than 60 percent of children dropping out especially in the early years. (ADB, 2001) In addition, both religious and ethno-religious minorities are facing cultural genocide due to the increasing influence of Islamization in the education system. During the last few years, question papers of both secondary and higher secondary board examination have intentionally framed questions that are inappropriate for minority students. Even the very language of the country is also being constantly reworked on reducing influence of Sanskrit. Though Bengali language has been developed from the offshoot of Sanskrit’s known as “Pali”, government has enacted institutions that are hitherto working to remove influence of Sanskrit by redefining word construct and