Public university students of the country may face another session jam due to the ongoing students’ quota reform movement and indefinite teachers’ protest programme against Universal Pension Scheme which began from July 1 this year.
The possibilities of the session jam participated as the classes and exams at all the public universities are being stopped since July 1 after the teachers’ movement started.
During the teachers’ movement, teachers of all the public universities across the country announced that they will not take any classes and exams until their demand - excluding themselves from the Universal Pension Scheme - is met. The government tried to sit with the teachers to resolve the problems.
However, the government could not sit with the teachers as the students’ quota reform movement turn into a massive agitation which almost paralysed the country and the government compelled to close all the educational institutions from pre-primary to university level.
Before the students’ massive movement, Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Choudhury told the media that they were observing the teachers’ agitation and would take initiative later. “The government does not treat the teachers like other government employee. If needs, we will talk with the teachers to resolve the ongoing movement.”
Nazmul Hossain (not real name), a student of 6th semester of Islamic Studies Department at Dhaka University, said that their sixth semester final exams was scheduled to held on July 2, but has been postponed due to the teachers’ movement.
He is not sure about the next approximate date of their postponed exam. Even the university did not provide any new date of the exams. That means they are already in session jam.
The education ministry source said that the educational institutions from pre-primary to higher education level may reopen next week. The education minister also said to the media that they will reopen the educational institutions soon.
Professor Nejamul Haque Bhuiyan, secretary general of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Federation, told The Business Post that their movement will continue even after reopening the educational institutions. “We hope that the government will sit with the teachers and resolve the problem as early as possible. Otherwise, session jam and other academic difficulties occur in future. The government must carry the responsibilities of the academic losses as they are delaying to meet our demand.”
School students in learning losses
The ongoing closure of the educational institutions may hamper their preparation and students might fall in other learning losses as the ministry prepared routine following the new curriculum where the students must attend the classes every day, they said.
The government has closed all the educational institutions across the country after unidentified miscreants created chaos using the banner of the students’ quota reform movement. The education ministry has even postponed the Higher Secondary Certificate examinations which were scheduled to be held on July 18, 21, 23 and 25.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the HSC exams were scheduled to be held in April. Meanwhile, the education ministry announced the result of the HSC exams in 2020, without taking any exams. And after that HSC exams were held in a short syllabus and in a random schedule. To reduce the time gap and academic losses, this year HSC exams were scheduled after completing 17 months classes only.
There are more than 20 million students at about 2,00,000 educational institutions across the country.
Private universities also in academic losses
The Brac University’s admission test, which was scheduled to be held on July 26, has been postponed. The new date of the admission test is not announced yet.
Fatius Fahmid, deputy manager of the communication office at Brac University, told The Business Post that the university postponed the test considering the ongoing movement. New date of the test will be announced after normalising the situation.
Not only Brac Unviersity but many other private universities have postponed their admission test resulting the delay of starting the new classes. The private universities could not operate online classes as the country’s broadband line has been shutdown during the movement which will create academic losses after reopening the universities.
