The case for a database that can transform our madrasa workforce

A few months ago, I hired an Arabic teacher for my children. He arrived on time, was patient and methodical, and could explain grammar to a 10-year-old while quoting theological texts from memory. One afternoon, I asked him, was there any platform where families like mine could find teachers like him—verified, experienced, and available? He looked at me in quiet confusion.

The fact is, no one knows precisely how many Qawmi madrasa students exist in Bangladesh today. Conservative estimates place the figure at around 14 lakh. Under Befaqul Madarisil Arabia Bangladesh alone, examination participation grew from 225,631 students in 2022 to 349,776 in 2025. In Sylhet division, one regional board oversees more than 185,000 students across roughly 1,100 institutions. If smaller and unregistered madrasas are included, the total number of Qawmi institutions could exceed 60,000 nationwide.

But as things stand, Bangladesh has no unified national database recording who these students are, what qualifications they earn, or how their skills connect to the wider economy. This is not simply a data gap. It is one of the largest missing pieces in the country’s human capital infrastructure.

A typical Qawmi student spends 10 to 15 years in rigorous study—classical Arabic, Quranic exegesis, jurisprudence, logic, and rhetoric. Their Dawra-e-Hadith degree carries official recognition that is equivalent to a postgraduate qualification. Many graduates are multilingual, trained in memorisation and disciplined reasoning. Yet the economic pathways available to them remain narrow. A widely cited empirical study by economist Abul Barakat and colleagues found that roughly three-quarters of madrasa graduates were unemployed or underemployed within a national context where, according to the World Bank, graduate unemployment rose from 9.7 percent in 2013 to 27.8 percent in 2022. Within that broader crisis, Qawmi graduates remain the least visible.

Many Qawmi madrasas function as orphanages, housing and educating thousands of children from vulnerable backgrounds. This system is sustained by donations from across the country. But without a unified data infrastructure, there is limited scope for independently verifying how those contributions are actually allocated—whether towards nutrition, healthcare, or residential welfare. The same absence of data that hides graduates from the labour market also constrains financial accountability.

Qawmi graduates possess social capital, serving as imams, teachers, counsellors, and mediators in communities across the country. In many places they are among the most trusted local figures. Economists describe this as trust capital: high-trust intermediaries who lower transaction costs and strengthen community cooperation. But the modern labour market has no mechanism to recognise or mobilise this trust.

Other countries have begun addressing similar challenges. Indonesia, for instance, has started integrating its pesantren network into national digital systems through the Ministry of Religious Affairs’ Education Management Information System, enabling graduates to access broader economic opportunities without altering their religious education.

A digital platform could allow madrasa graduates to maintain verified professional profiles linked to their institutions and qualifications. In that scenario, when a student completes Hifz, it is recorded. When a graduate completes Dawra-e-Hadith, the credential is authenticated. Service as an imam or teacher becomes searchable. Once credentials become visible, families can find tutors, mosques can recruit imams, and organisations can identify community educators. Over time, the same verified identity could connect graduates to digital skills training, scholarship programmes, or microfinance. Even a modest transition—say, 10 to 15 percent of currently underemployed graduates moving into structured income-generating roles—could translate into significant economic activity, potentially adding thousands of crores annually through increased productivity and household income.

Bangladesh has solved complex development challenges before, such as building a global model for microcredit, a garment industry exporting billions annually, and digital financial services at a remarkable scale. Each transformation occurred because infrastructure was built where none previously existed. The Qawmi network already hosts centralised examinations processing hundreds of thousands of students annually. What is missing is the digital layer connecting religious education with economic participation.

Md Mahmudul Hasan is a digital banking and fintech strategist focused on financial inclusion, platform economics, and innovation.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

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