By The Numbers
Aftermath of DU violence
The violence that flared on the Dhaka University (DU) campus from August 20 to 22, erupting from a brawl between an army man and a student during a football match is now over. But its aftermath, which is still continuing, is taking heavy toll on the general students.
The government had to shut down all universities and university colleges to crush the violence that engulfed other campuses. Meanwhile all the closed universities and colleges have resumed classes except the DU, Rajshahi University and Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology.
The DU syndicate, the highest decision-making body of the university, took decision to reopen the DU on October 28, that was closed on August 23 sine die after an order issued by the government in the wake of widespread violence in the campus.
The DU authority has postponed as many as 518 examinations of the DU itself and also the examinations of the affiliated colleges under 26 categories during its closure till October 27. Of the examinations, 254 examinations were scheduled to take place at Arts Building centre, 164 in Curzon Hall centre and 100 in Business Faculty.
According to an official of the DU Controller of Examination office, the students will have to face an acute session jam because of the unscheduled closure of the university for 66 days. The session jam in the DU is sure to aggravate further as the worst situation of the session jam has been prevailing in the DU over last several years.
DU, the highest seat of learning of the country, practically became crippled during the tenure of immediate past government. The academic activities of the DU had been tottering for the last several years due to frequent strikes by the student organisations, political violence, hartals, and work abstention by the teachers, resulting in enormous session jams leading from two to five years delay in academic schedules.
In a rare event of the 86 years history of the DU, it remained closed for 22 months in the last four years and a quarter from July 2000 to September 2004. Apart from the annual scheduled vacations of some 90 days, the university lost over 75 days a year on an average due to strikes and other impediments during the aforesaid period.
The overcrowding created by the session jam has also made the students deprived of many other facilities like transportation, accommodation in the residential halls, instruments in the laboratory, and reading materials in the library.
The daily Jugantar carried a sensitive report on the academic affairs of the DU a few years back. The report said, country incurs a financial loss of Tk 150 crore each year due to forced stoppage of academic activities and session jams in DU. The government spends Tk 87 crore each year for 30,000 students of DU and each student is required to spend Tk 2,000 per month as their educational expenses, which is borne by poor parents.
Prof. Syed Rashidul Hasan, the former treasurer of DU said in a statement that the DU loses around Tk 45 lakh a day in the event of forced stoppage of academic activities.
There is no place for free thinking in the universities nowadays, as the teachers have got involved in partisan politics abusing the autonomy of the universities and they are even getting promotions wielding political clout, said Dr. Kamal Hossain, the eminent jurist of the country, while speaking as the chief guest at a roundtable on Education: Students and Expectation, held in the city on September 7.
"Did I commit any mistake by drafting the University Ordinance 1973" asked Dr. Kamal in a rather ambivalent mood observing the excesses committed by the teachers abusing the Act.
The speakers at a national seminar on "Improvement of the standard of public universities: In connection with DU" also observed that the politics in the campus is never going to stop if the vice chancellor is appointed by the prime minister. DU-67 club organised the seminar in the city on March 24. The speakers also termed the DU as a victim of deadly student politics.
The caretaker government is also contemplating to introduce a new system for appointing vice chancellors (VCs) in a bid to check the practice of political appointments. The education ministry is likely to amend the existing Public University Ordinance 1973 soon following the recommendation of the UGC. The UGC has also recommended for formation of a six-member committee for searching honest and competent candidates for the posts of VCs.
The spread of violence outside the DU campus clearly indicates that some elements were out to destabilize the government using the students' unrest as an opportunity. The government formed a one-member judicial inquiry commission led by a retired High Court Judge to investigate the violence.
Police arrested Prof. Anwar Hossain, the secretary general of the DU Teachers' Association (Duta) and Prof. Harun-or-Rashid on August 24 and remanded for eight days for questioning about the violence. A court on September 13 has issued arrest warrants against two DU teachers -- Prof. Sadrul Amin, the president of Duta and Prof. Neem Chandra Bhowmik. Arrest warrants have also been issued against 14 students of DU.
These sorts of action against the DU teachers and students may further aggravate the congenial atmosphere in the campus. Meanwhile a DU delegation of about 20 members led by VC had a meeting with some senior army officers on the issue. We urge the government to be compassionate and considerate towards the respectable and elderly DU teachers and go for action on the basis of judicial inquiry commission's report, which is yet to be completed. We think that it would not be wise to go for harsh action against the teachers on the basis of police report, who were a party in the incidence.
The most silent decay in our national life has occurred in the sector of higher education, which is due to the teacher student politics. Frequent strikes, violence and other impediments have been taking a heavy toll on the general student of the public universities. We also think that government should go for amendment of the University Ordinance 1973 to bring back the universities to the right track.
Education is the area, which has been kept above all political rivalry in most of the countries in the world. Sadly, the politicians of Bangladesh are conspicuously devoid of such sense. Naked politicisation in every field of national life has not spared the education sector and political nepotism in recruiting unfit teachers has also contributed to the decline quality in higher education.
It is appreciable that the caretaker government has initiated a move for a permanent ban on politics by teachers and students of public universities and colleges, in a bid to restore proper academic atmosphere in the institutes of higher education. The government must do it.
A. N. M. Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.
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