National University (NU) authorities have taken a number of initiatives, which include decentralisation of the administration, to cut down session jam.
NU Vice-chancellor Professor Dr Harun-or-Rashid described the steps and the overall development of education at institutions under the NU while addressing a press briefing at his office in the capital yesterday.
“We have recently introduced an academic calendar which shows the entire examination schedules of the four-year bachelor’s courses and three-year degree courses. We are also committed to publish the results within three months after the end of exams,” he said.
The NU authorities came up with the strategies amid the operation of an eight-member committee formed by the University Grants Commission (UGC) which is working to implement the government’s decision to bring the bachelor’s and master’s colleges affiliated with the NU under 36 public universities.
The committee started working after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave the directive during her August 31 visit at the Education Ministry.
“The NU is the largest university in the country with 2,154 colleges (275 public and 1,879 private), about 21 lakh students and around 60,000 teachers. About 100 different sorts of examinations are held at the NU annually and it takes six to seven months to publish exam results,” said the NU vice-chancellor.
Professor Harun mentioned three reasons that lead to session jam - centralised administration, traditional administrative direction and exam management policy, and political programmes such as general strike – and said six regional centres in six divisions had been established to resolve the problem.
“A director has been appointed at each of the centres to ensure smooth operations. This is also a part of our decentralisation efforts.
“Crash programmes will be introduced soon to reduce session jam for old students that lasts between four months and a year.
“Our strategies also include moving to online, where there will also be a database of teachers, and monitoring publication of results. We are hopeful that these steps will be effective in reducing the problem of session jam,” he said.
The NU vice-chancellor also said there has to be an authority which will supervise the whole plan to ensure that those do not contradict the prime minister’s directives.
NU Pro Vice-chancellor Profesoor Dr Munaj Ahmad Noor and Treasurer Professor Noman-ur-Rashid were present at the conference among others.