Rajshahi Government Madrasha, Rajshahi

Rajshahi Government Madrasha was established in 1874 with a view to educate the Muslims by giving modern education based on Islam. The name of Hazi Mohammad Mohsin is the great personality and the famous philanthropist who was behind this educational institution. He was from Hoogly, West Bengal now in India. He inherited a vast property that he donated to ‘Hoogly Imam Bara’ (religious institution in Hoogly). It was not easy to operate this vast land property smoothly. So, the then Bengal Government took initiative and decided to spend the money from the ‘Mohsin Fund’ to educate the Muslims who were then lagging behind in modern education and culture. Steps were taken to improve the Madrashas in Hoogly and in Calcutta and to establish new ones in Dhaka, Chittagong and in Rajshahi. Scholarships for the Muslim students were also introduced. Educated and elite people living in Rajshahi helped to found ‘Dorse Nijamia Senior Madrasha’ in January, 1874. The first Superintendent was Moulana Abdul Kadir. He gave his best efforts for this institution. But one name that cannot but be mentioned is Nawab Abdul Latif who was one of the organizers.
During that period English medium schools and colleges were getting popularity because knowledge of English was essential to get jobs in the government offices. This is why the number of the students got reduced here in this Madrasha and as a consequence the status fell down and ‘Senior Madrasha’ was turned into ‘Junior Madrasha.’ This fate did not happen only to this one. It also happened to all the madrashas except Calcutta Alia Madrasha and Hoogly Madrasha. So, some changes were brought in the madrashas and English was introduced as a medium. This reform taken by the government is known as ‘Reformed Madrasha Scheme.’ Because of this all the High Madrashas and Junior Madrashas were made equivalent to High Schools and Secondary Schools. In 1882 the Vice president of Bengal Legislative Council Mr. Khan Bahadur Emad Uddin took initiative to introduce class seven and it turned into Senior Madrasha again. In 1930 the name of this institution was changed into ‘Rajshahi High Madrasha.’ And wad was brought under the control of ‘Director of Public Instructions.’ In 1931 one post of “Superintendent’ and one ‘Lecturer’ in Arabic were formed. In 1937 the post ‘Superintendent’ was changed into ‘Principal.’ In 1959, as per the recommendations of ‘Ataur Rahman Khan Education Commission’ this ‘Madrasha’ was brought under ‘Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board,’ and finally, started a new journey as a fully fledged high school since 1960. And then the name of this school was reformed as ‘Rajshahi Government Madrasha,’ and since then students are getting modern education as in other government schools in Bangladesh.