37 Public universities have sent a list of approximately 24,000 students to the University Grants Commission (UGC) for providing soft loans to purchase smartphones to ensure participation in online classes amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The UGC conducted a survey last May on the role and effectiveness of online education in higher education institutions. Around 87% of the students who took part in the survey said they have smartphones.
However, 14 out of 37 universities added more students in their list than the standard percentage according to the survey, which also included students from well-off families.
The University Apex body sent them a reminder letter to send a new list based on the student's annual income information statement provided during admission, UGC Director for public universities Md Kamal Hossain confirmed the matter to Dhaka Tribune on Wednesday.
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He said Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong University, and Rajshahi University have not yet sent their lists due to inadequate time. They have verbally sought a time extension to prepare the list.
He further said four medical universities, National University, Bangladesh Open University, and Islamic Arabic University students were not considered.
"UGC will provide a soft loan without interest so that the benefitted students could return the amount before ending their student life,” added UGC Director for public universities.
UGC Chairman Kazi Shahidullah told Dhaka Tribune: “We will give Tk10,000 as an interest-free loan to students in the final list as per the ministry’s policy. The fund will be managed by the Education Ministry, finance division, planning commission, and other international stakeholders including the World Bank and Asian Development Bank (ADB).”
On August 9, a letter signed by UGC Public University Management Department Director, Prof Kamal Hossain, asked the vice-chancellors of the universities to send “accurate lists” to the email address [email protected] by August 25, according to a UGC statement.
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Meanwhile, students of the country’s public and private universities will also be provided with month-long internet service at Tk100 by Teletalk in a bid to keep the online education activities going amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
This initiative, for universities under the UGC, Bangladesh Research and Education Network (BdREN) project, aims to help students with their online education.
Following the suspension of classes at all educational institutions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, online classes were launched at public universities. However, most of the universities could not implement online classes properly as many students lacked the means to attend them.
The UGC on June 25 decided to ensure free internet packages and smartphones for impoverished students under soft loans and grant schemes
