Disruption of classes and rescheduling of exams due to the continuous blockade and hartals by BNP-led 20 party alliance have severely hampered lives of students at public and privates universities in Chittagong.
Sources at universities say class schedules have been disrupted while many scheduled exams have been postponed in order to avoid blockade violence which has so far claimed about 70 across the country.
Teachers say if the ongoing political turmoil continues, students would be victim of severe session jam. Many worry that it would affect their job potential as well as motivation.
Chittagong has around 13 universities, including three public universities Chittagong University (CU), Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET), and Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (CVASU).
According to CU sources, a number of scheduled examinations under different departments have been either rescheduled or postponed due to the spell of hartals and blockades that began on January 6.
Sajol Kumar Nath, a student of Civil Engineering Student at Port City International University Chittagong say their classes have been shut down due to the blockades.
Examinations at CU under 10 departments including Institute of Education Research and Training, Philosophy, Public Administration, International Relations, Communication and Journalism, Economics, Arabic, History, Islamic Studies, Islamic History and Culture were rescheduled multiple times between January 15 and February 9.
Farzana Akhtar Parul, a third year student at the department of Islamic History and Culture told this correspondent: “Our examination had begun on December 28 last year. And so far, till February 10, only four out of 11 examinations have been held due to hartals.
Sayeed Al Noman, founder vice chairman at East Delta University told this correspondent: “We are also suffering like the public universities due to the shutdown. We are trying to hold make-up classes and hold the examinations at night when the hartals are over.”
“We have now started online classes to maintain an academic calendar for the students,” said Noman.
While some resort to alternative forms of classes such as online classes and assignments, some are doing their best to continue life as it used to be. Premier University has held exams both during hartal hours and during the weekends, sources say.
While many CU exams were postponed, even CU followed this trend. Sources say few CU examinations have been held during the weekends to avoid session jam. Professor Dr Mohammad Mohiuddin, examination controller (acting) at CU says examinations of a few departments were held during the blockade.
Some other exams such as those in the journalism and Arabic departments were postponed indefinitely.
Niaj Morshed Ripon, the first year examination committee’s chairman at CU’s international relations department, say the department is now holding examinations on Fridays to make up for the interrupted timetable.
Md Jaydur Rahman, examination controller at International Islamic University of Chittagong (IIUC) said although many exams have been rescheduled for as many as three times, their classes remained open despite the blockade.
Professor Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury, CU’s pro-vice chancellor shared with us the long-term effects of such disruptions. “Students would not take proper preparation for exams as they are gripped by the uncertainty.
He added that the academic calendars would collapse due to the spell of hartals, and students would heavily lag behind in the job markets if their results are not published on time.
Parul, the third year student at CU, worries these long stretches are demotivating. ““Now, I don’t know when my examinations will finally end. I am losing focus because of these long gaps,” she said.