Written by mohsin Saturday, 25 August 2012 16:05
Dhaka, Aug 25 The Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) reopened on Saturday after a 44-day shutdown stemming from protests by its teachers and students seeking ouster of the Vice-Chancellor. However, no classes were held on Saturday.
Holding admission test to BUET for the 2012-2013 session has also become uncertain as the protesting teachers have been boycotting classes and other academic activities for more than a month.
Following the protest of the students and teachers demanding resignation of the VC and Pro-Vice Chancellor, BUET authorities had advanced the Eid-ul-Fitr vacation, from July 10. But the protesters continued their movement.
Some of the demonstrating teachers said they continued their protests at personal level by skipping classes but without any formal declaration of any protest plan to guard themselves against contempt of court charge.
The High Court on Aug 14 in a rule ordered authorities to start the admission process of the first-year students amid the teachers' protests.
Asked whether all the teachers had decided not to take classes, BUET Teachers Association General Secretary Ashraful Islam told bdnews24.com: "This is not the association's decision. If a teacher does not take classes, it's his personal decision."
The teachers' association has been leading the protest against the VC and the Pro-VC.
"We still demand that they (VC and Pro-VC) resign. We hope the government will take positive measures considering the situation of BUET," Islam said.
Vice-Chancellor SM Nazrul Islam, however, on Saturday hoped the teachers would return to classes.
"Maybe they did not come today (Saturday) as it was the first day. They will attend in the coming days," he said.
Asked what action would be taken if they didn't take the classes even after that, Islam dodged the query and said, "I'm in a meeting… I'll talk later."
The VC, who faced harsh protest from his colleagues and students recently, had earlier also threatened to continue the university's academic activities by appointing new teachers.
About the admission process, he on Saturday said the university's Academic Council meeting would decide on the issue on Tuesday.
However, a leader of the teachers association, preferring not to be named, told bdnews24.com: "The deans and chairmen of the departments will have to be called upon if the authorities decide to proceed with the admission test. But those teachers will not attend the meeting for sure."
The teachers association had started abstaining from work on Apr 7 demanding the removal of the VC and Pro-VC Habibur Rahman.
After the Prime Minister had promised to consider their demand, they had postponed the strike for one month. But as their demand was not met within July 7, they started work abstention for two hours from 11am.
Facing protests by the teachers and students, the BUET authorities shut the university on July 10, a month in advance for Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr, until Aug 24. The decision intensified the protests.
On July 11, 24 teachers holding academic posts resigned. Then the teachers association announced that the teachers would resign en masse on July 22 if there demand was not met.
They, however, postponed the 'resignation decision' until July 30. Since then they have been staging token hunger-strike on the campus for two hours from 11am every day.
After meeting former VCs and senior teachers of BUET, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid had said a solution would be worked out after discussions with the Prime Minister and the President.
The High Court on Aug 14 ordered the university authorities to immediately start procedures for admissions to the 2012-13 academic session. It also issued a rule asking why the movement of the teachers should not be declared illegal.
Since then, the BUET teachers have not announced officially any protest programme.
কোন মন্তব্য নেই:
একটি মন্তব্য পোস্ট করুন