Editorial
CU's Sad Saga
WHAT could be more distressing than the fact that there were no academic activities for almost two-thirds of the just-ended academic year at one of the country's premier educational institutions, Chittagong University? What could be a stronger case in favour of a moratorium on the blend of student politics currently in practice at the CU than the fact that almost one hundred days were lost to different agitation programmes enforced by different student organisations throughout the year? As it is, scheduled vacations, weekends included, gobbled up more than three months of the academic calendar. The Chittagong University has apparently become a case study of a dysfunctional academy beset with systemic and external impediments. Thanks to the inadequacies in curriculum and academic calendar design, and the morbid battle for ascendancy on the campus waged by one student organisation against another, the very future of a few thousand general students hangs in a precarious balance. With so many months lost, the future holds the bleak prospect of session jams, meaning a delayed entry of students into the job market. For the poor ones whose graduation promises enhanced earning for a family that will be a big disappointment indeed.
The woeful condition at the Chittagong University, as in other major educational institutions in the country, has its roots in national politics which remains exploitative of the student bodies. Politicisation, and eventually criminalisation, of the student community is the prime impediment to proper atmosphere and functioning of the institutions of learning. On more than one occasion before, this paper has urged the political leaders to dissociate from the students and not to make the campus their battle-ground. Unfortunately, our plea has not been paid heed to. We are not against student politics. Our opposition is against the orgy of killing and getting killed it has become nowadays. To rid the universities of the evil, it's the politicians who should take the first step with the PM herself leading the way for it.
Having said that, we would like to draw the authorities' attention to the incongruity in calendar-planning. Why would there be three months of scheduled vacation, in the first place? We do need to plan things better to cope with the situation.
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