Lengthy closures and forced boycott of classes and examinations in some public universities may set off prolonged session jams, officials at the University Grants Commission (UGC) warned.
They said students of three universities would suffer the most because of teachers forging ahead with their protest programmes and resultant disruptions in the regular academic schedules.
These are frustrating times for the students who are generally more used to the idea of session jams being caused by the student wings of political parties and the violence wrought by them.
Right now, Jahangirnagar University, Comilla University and Begum Rokeya University are facing threats of prolonged session jams thanks to agitating teachers, although teachers of the third one called off their protest yesterday.
On the other hand, the situation at Shahjalal Science and Technology University (SSTU) and Khulna University has improved to some extent in recent times.
“There is a growing fear that at least one of the universities, Jahangirnagar, might not be able to hold its admission tests this year if the ongoing crisis continues without abatement,” a senior official of UGC said.
Earlier, UGC Chairman AK Azad Chowdhury, expressing concern over the situation, told the Dhaka Tribune that a prolonged session jam might set in some of the embattled universities. “We have sent our emissaries to some universities urging them to find solutions.”
In Jahangirnagar University, teachers are demonstrating to demand resignation of Vice-chancellor Prof Anwar Hossain, who had been kept confined to his office for the third consecutive day yesterday.
The agitating teachers put up a barricade in front of the VC office since Wednesday noon when he entered it, ignoring a two-day comprehensive strike called by the General Teachers’ Forum demanding his removal.
Sources said, academic activities in the university had been seriously hampered in the last two years owing to controversy surrounding its vice-chancellors. The previous vice chancellor Shariff Enamul Kabir had to resign giving in to the pressure of teachers, the same who are now pressuring his successor, a former professor at the Dhaka University, to step down.
“It’s the students who have been suffering because of the distrust and crisis of confidence among the teachers. For two years we have suffered and I don’t know how long more we’ll have to continue to do so,” said Ijaj Hossain, a student of BBA department of the university.
In Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur, it was like one pile of problem after another. First, the teachers demonstrated to demand the resignation of Vice-chancellor Abdul Jalil Miah who was terminated following a probe body’s report, in which he was found guilty of corruption.
Then unrest spilled over into other areas when teachers, recruited during the tenure of the sacked VC, started demonstrating with the demand to regularise their jobs. They called off their strike yesterday, although earlier they had announced that they would continue it until their demands were met.
The teachers of Comilla University had long been pressuring its vice-chancellor to realise their set of demands, having already triggered a session jam of some sort. Recently, they postponed their strike but threatened to resume it if their demands remained unmet.
About unabated teachers’ unrest and agitation, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told the Dhaka Tribune that his ministry was working to solve the problems in the public universities.
