Country’s public universities are drastically lagging behind in completing lessons as most of them could not continue their academic activities during the ongoing corona crisis.
When private universities have taken initiative to conduct online exams, admissions and even interviews, public universities have hardly taken such initiative.
Educationalists said that public universities should lead the way in overcoming the crisis in the country. however, in reality, these universities are lagging far behind in terms of utilizing the technology.
If the universities authority desire, they will be able to continue their educational activities through online or even social media like Facebook where at least 90 percent of their students can join, experts said.
All educational institutions in the country have been closed since March 16 to prevent coronavirus infection. After that, educational activities from primary to higher levels are opting to use internet technology, except public universities.
With the exception of a few, most public universities are still not considering about online classes.
Meanwhile, many public university authorities say that in the current situation they do not have any preparation or environment of conducting online classes. If the situation is normal, additional classes will be taken by reducing the weekly leave and other holidays.
To minimize the loss of student’s learning and continue education, social media like Facebook can be an alternative to formal education.
Mazharul Islam Rifat, former student of University of Chittagong (CU), has voluntarily taken job related classes and examination through group discussion regularly by using Facebook.
Hundreds of students of statistics department at the CU have been benefitted by participating in regular online lessons and taking part in online examination via a Facebook group titled ‘Statistics Talent Programme’.
Learning, examining and mutual assessment have been done through post and comment in virtual platform amid coronavirus crisis.
Contacted, Mazharul Islam, also the Assistant Director of Bangladesh Tourism Board, told Bangladesh Post, “Students who own a smart phone, can learn using virtual platform easily. In this case, our university teachers can keep their students in touch of learning by utilizing this social media. Teachers can upload a video lecture (within 10 minutes) or file his lecture so that students can learn it in their convenient time.”
About his facebook group education, he said, “More than 120 students are taking part in my examination daily. Some students may not bear the cost of high-speed internet. In this case, Facebook is a good alternative as they can use it even free of cost.”
Replying to a query, he said, “I was inspired by a teacher of tourism department of Dhaka University. He would take classes and announce the results immediately in the class by using an App (software).”
A senior teacher said that the education system of the country is in a very dilapidated state.
The world ranking of the country’s public universities has drastically dwindled over the last couple of years. No public universities of Bangladesh could earn any place among 1,500 universities in global ranking.
This situation is demeaning the quality of higher education at public universities and depicting the poor educational status of a nation as well.
Laila Ferdous, a teacher at Green University, said, “In Bangladesh, we can use the internet on any smartphone not only for social communication but also as a means of education. It is possible to take classes on all subjects using a smartphone while at a distance.”
Vice Chancellor of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Professor Farid Uddin Ahmed said, “There are some problems in public universities, but it is not impossible to take classes online. This can be done if there is a desire to take the initiative.”
Recently, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has prepared a guideline for private universities regarding online classes and it is working to ensure that public universities also conduct online education activities.
A senior UGC official said commission is trying to issue a policy in this regard. If this policy is issued, all public and private universities will have to run online education activities.
If such a situation continues for a long time, everything cannot be stopped. This initiative has been taken to activate educational activities in the universities.
UGC Chairman Dr Kazi Shahidullah said that the work of making policy to run online education activities is going on.
He said, “The policy will be applicable to all public and private universities. A committee has been formed in this regard where UGC member Professor Dil Afroza Begum is the convener of the committee.”
“No one can say how long the educational institutions will have to remain closed during the epidemic. Since everyone is feeling the need for online classes, this is being done so that we can give a guideline to all the universities,” he added.
In this regard, Professor Dil Afroza Begum told Bangladesh Post, “We have not prepared any policy until now. We are conducting survey. The policy will be done only when the survey is done.”
The Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Akhtaruzzaman conducted a meeting with the deans of different faculties of the university regarding online class.
It said most of the university students are staying at home in different parts of the country and do not have the ability to participate in online classes due to lack of internet and other technical facilities. Jahangirnagar, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Jagannath universities are in a similar position.