PM's visit to DU
Mahadev Kumar Das, Jagannath Hall, Dhaka University, Dhaka-1000.
Recently our venerable Prime Minister visited Dhaka University for conferring gold medals to the meritorious students of various departments for their outstanding performance in honors final exam. She, accompanied by a good number of cabinet members delivered a very efficacious speech which was very conducive for students to attain excellent grade in their forthcoming exams. About halfway in her speech, she pointed out the golden past of this prestigious institution. She mentioned that once upon a time this institution produced very qualified students but now is lagging behind its own standard. As a result the students can not cope up with the competitions in global and national job markets which leave them being unemployed, she added. For that, she indicated some causes and blamed the teachers for their partisan affiliation. We thank our premier for her smooth confession and revealing the truth. But ironically, she escaped some other very crucial issues which are also involved in creating the present phase. At first she totally ignored the sinister student politics which very often puts a barrier to achieving degrees on time. Although it has a golden past thanks to its involvement in many successful revolutions including our glorious liberation war. Now our student leaders are busy fulfilling their own selfish desires. Frequently they engage themselves in clashes with their rival groups over political issues which result in strikes that halt the regular curriculum activities. The tug of war takes a heavy toll on general students as they get embroiled in traumatic session jams. But our premier dexterously evaded this issue though once she had promised to pull out this obnoxious knot from all educational institutions. She also evaded another important issue. In the heydays of DU all the teachers were appointed on the basis of their merit and calibre. At that time, UGC directly recruited the most eligible candidate in a systematic process so that there was no political interference. But now teachers are designated based on their political loyalty. For that reason DU, the highest learning seat of our country, has been losing its previous glory. She ignored the university ordinance of 1973 which gave the teachers legal right to exercise free and fair politics. It is not the politics that is to blame, but it's the party lineage of the teachers she seems to put a cover on. Is it because she needs some like-minded intelligentsia who would not question her actions? The existing ambience of DU will not change as long as these problems are not resolved.
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