A half-century old error in the sequencing of disciplines at the Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh has prompted a protest by a section of students.
The wrong sequencing has been in place for more than fifty years, but the issue was left unaddressed until very recently when the Agriculture Faculty Students Association (Afsa) discovered the issue.
In a press briefing Saturday, Afsa leaders alleged that the wrong sequencing had been misguiding the students of the university for decades when they chose subjects during admission.
In 1957, the erstwhile Pakistan government established the “College of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sciences” at the present location of BAU. In 1961, it was renamed the “East Pakistan Agricultural University” which came to be known as BAU after independence.
The university was formed under the East Pakistan Agricultural University Ordinance 1961, which said that the university should comprise six faculties in the following exact order: Agriculture; Animal Husbandry; Veterinary Science; Agricultural Engineering and Technology; Agricultural Economics and Sociology; and Fisheries
But the sequencing of disciplines in the admission form appears in the following order: Veterinary Science; Agriculture; Animal Husbandry; Agricultural Engineering & Technology; Agricultural Economics & Sociology; and Fisheries.
Sources from the academic office said the wrong sequencing had been in place since the inception of the university. They said the existing sequencing was done following the order of the date the faculties were formed, not according to the ordinance.
Afsa leaders said the wrong sequencing has been giving a wrong message to the aspirant students that Veterinary Science was a better subject than Agriculture.
After admission, when students learn that agriculture offers better job prospects and want to migrate, the wrong sequencing does not allow the migration because according to the rules, a student cannot migrate to a subject that is positioned lower in the sequence.
Afsa leaders alleged that this had not only been misguiding the students, but also depriving the Faculty of Agriculture of more meritorious students.
Afsa General Secretary Md Faisal Islam, in a written statement at the briefing, said: “We have talked to the authorities several times regarding this matter. Although they assured us about discussing the issue in the 300th meeting of the university Syndicate; but they never brought up the topic during the meeting.”
“They have ignored in the issue at the 301st meeting of the syndicate as well,” Faisal alleged.
He issued a note of warning, saying: “We [Afsa], along with the general students, will go for tougher movements after Eid-ul-Fitr if the university authorities fail to resolve the issue by this time.”
BAU Registrar Md Nozibur Rahman told this correspondent that they could not raise the issue in the syndicate meeting because there had not been enough members present at the last meeting.
He assured that the matter would be addressed soon after the university opened after the Eid vacations.
