Academic activities at all public universities were supposed to resume after Eid-ul-Azha vacation. All academic and non-academic activities and examinations were also scheduled to begin on time.
However, academic and administrative activities of all public universities of the country came to a halt as teachers and employees went on an indefinite strike demanding their exclusion from the ‘discriminatory’ pension scheme. Besides, for the fourth consecutive day, students on Thursday blocked Dhaka’s Shahbagh intersection and different strategic points, and highways in the country protesting the High Court’s decision to reinstate the quota system in government jobs.
Therefore, the stalemate at public universities continues due to the indefinite strike by teachers and employees, and students. And the BNP is instigating the teachers and students to take to the street.
It seems the party (BNP) has turned into a parasite party as it is now depending on anti-quota and teachers movements after being failed in all anti-government movements. But, none can win in any movement by depending on others’ shoulders.
We are gravely concerned about the students’ academic activities at public universities as all their examinations have been postponed. This deadlock will be another disaster for the students after the COVID-19 pandemic and different natural disasters. Three years back, the prolonged closure of educational institutions has badly impacted the country’s education sector.
The closure of public universities
is letting students’ dreams and
hopes fade far away and throw
them into uncertainty again.
The students heaved a sigh of relief as their academic activities were going on in full swing to recover the learning losses and avert session jam. But now, while teachers are passing busy days with movement, the students are blocking roads and highways.
Teachers continue participating in the movement instead of taking classes and holding the ‘term test’ examinations. It seems all course teachers of different departments of the public universities have forgotten to hold the term test, honours final year, and masters examinations.
The closure of public universities is letting students’ dreams and hopes fade far away and throw them into uncertainty again. A clique in Bangladesh is always very active and the politics of conspiracy is still also going on only to create unrest in the country’s education sector first.
In this regard, the government will have to understand the intention of those who got involved in such activities apart from remaining alert as there will be tougher challenges in the days to come. The university authorities must play a key role to keep the higher seats of learning, running and continuing the academic activities in the greater interest of students.
If any untoward incident occurs, then the university authorities have to handle the situation smartly and hold talks to the high command of the government or the chancellor instead of creating chaos. The conspirators are preparing to create unrest in the country centring the universities with a target to oust the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
We urge the university authorities to give special attention to students to keep their academic activities running. We also seek the Prime Minister’s intervention to make sure that both teachers and students will return to their respective classrooms immediately after a fruitful solution to this end.
The public universities also have to remain alert so that no element has any scope to create unrest on their respective campuses. The universities will have to create a friendly atmosphere for running academic activities smoothly.
BNP and Jamaat are now using their student wings--Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal and Islami Chhatra Shibir to create unrest as they failed to foil the January 7 general elections. This clique has now become desperate to see bloodshed on the country’s prestigious university campuses, especially at Dhaka University.
They are making ill attempts to make the campuses unstable by using their student wings. Some public universities have already witnessed anarchy in the name of movement recently.
