Academic buildings need timely repair

We are concerned by the dilapidated condition of the academic buildings and residential halls in Noakhali Government Women’s College, which serves more than 7,000 young women and girls. Established in 1970, this government college, the only one in the district exclusively for female students of higher secondary, degree and honours level courses, has been in an unsafe condition for years. Three out of its four pucca and semi-pucca buildings have been identified as risky by the Education Engineering Department, while one out of its two residential buildings had to be abandoned three years ago due to safety concerns.

Ironically, this year, the education sector has received the largest ever allocation in the country’s budget history. While such a move at the policy level demonstrates the government’s forward-looking intention for human resource development, at the implementation level, all these good intentions falter. Despite receiving a comparatively larger allocation as a percentage of the total budget by all previous governments, the education sector has often had a low ADP implementation rate. Allocations had to be slashed as funds remained unused.

On the other side of the coin, however, are educational institutions like Noakhali Government Women’s College, which have been struggling to get approval for better facilities, such as new administrative, academic and residential hall buildings, adequate manpower, modern libraries, laboratories, and transport facilities. This leads to the question: why do ADP allocations remain unused while many academic institutions lack the facilities required to ensure a proper learning environment?

The answer is not unknown. For years, bureaucratic red tape, the lengthy process of project selection and approval, and political influence on the selection process have delayed necessary repair and maintenance works, teacher recruitment, and development of other facilities in the existing educational institutions. In politics, a completely new infrastructure is often prioritised over an already established one, and thus decades-old institutions continue to suffer.

We hope that under the new BNP leadership, we can come out of this culture. The education sector can implement the allocated ADP better, ensuring educational institutions, particularly those that cater to females exclusively, can provide a safe and modern learning environment. The government’s plan to make education free up to the bachelors level for women will see success when women and girls can attend classrooms where parts of the ceiling would not fall over their heads.