The University Grants Commission (UGC) has decided to issue directives to the vice-chancellors of all public and private universities to continue their classes and hold exams, ignoring the 20-party alliance’s hartal and blockade programmes.
A recent UGC board meeting made the decision, which came in the backdrop of most universities suspending academic activities on weekdays since the BNP-led alliance started calling its series of successive hartals from the start of February.
On February 16, a board meeting of the UGC decided to call an immediate meeting with more than 100 VCs from public and private universities and to tell them to carry on with their classes and exams in order to avoid session jams.
However, the minutes of the meeting – obtained by the Dhaka Tribune – did not include any details on when such a meeting between the UGC and the VCs would be held.
According to the minutes, the commission’s Chairman Dr AK Azad Chowdhury pointed out to the board that the High Court had recently issued an order telling the government to stop criminal activities in the name of hartals and blockade.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid has also been notified of the UGC decision, sources said.
Earlier in January, pro-BNP-Jamaat teachers at different universities had announced they would not take any classes until the hartal and blockade programmes ended.
According to sources from different universities, most educational institutions have been taking classes during Fridays and Saturdays – the only days of the week when there have not been hartals during February – in order to make up for the missed classes. For the rest of the week, classes do not take place out of fear of possible violence surrounding the successive series of hartals.
However, some public universities have been holding classes on hartal days on a limited basis, even though student attendance remains low.
But most of the private universities are reportedly choosing to hold classes on hartal-free days in order to ensure safety for their students.
