Taking teachers hostage

What we fail to understand is that, during the time that the teachers were confined, they were wholly at the mercy of the students while the university authorities failed to provide the minimum protection to the teachers. Why did their deliverance from the horrific experience wait for the intervention of the VC, who happened to be abroad and returned to Dhaka only that afternoon? It was quite possible that the teachers might have had to suffer a longer hardship had the VC not returned that day. This is simply a ridiculous situation that reflects poorly on the state of teacher-students relationship.

Having said this we would like to add that there is a tendency to give short shrift to the problems of students of most of the residential halls. House tutors, and most of all the provost, who is supposed to reside inside the premise of the hostel, are there primarily to look into and resolve the residents' problems. It couldn't have been a happy situation for the students of the hostel to have endured the difficulties for three long months as the report suggests some of the problems were lingering for.

Tap here to add The Daily Star as a trusted source

Needless to say, these problems were not insurmountable, and if addressed promptly, would have prevented such a situation occurring in the first place. It is certainly injudicious to allow these problems to snowball, which results in breakdown of communication and encourage lawlessness.

And breakdown the communication did. Otherwise how does one explain the students' behaviour stemming from problems that were not beyond solution?