Students of all polytechnic institutes across the country will stage a protest march after Juma prayers today, wearing funeral shrouds on their heads.

They have announced the new programme since they were dissatisfied over the outcome of a meeting with the officials from the Ministry of Education over their six-point demands.

Their six-point demand includes the removal of "controversial craft instructors" appointed after 2021, converting the diploma engineering programme into a full four-year course with six-month semesters, and ensuring that only diploma holders can apply for the post of deputy assistant engineer (Grade 10) and equivalent positions.

Yesterday, the meeting began around 12:00pm at the Secretariat, where Rehana Yasmin, additional secretary (technical wing) of the Technical and Madrasah Education Division, met an 18-member delegation from Karigori Chhatro Andolon, Bangladesh.

After the meeting, student representative Mashfiq Islam said that they did not receive any official documents or see any concrete initiatives from the ministry. They will announce new protest programmes soon to push for the demands, he also said yesterday.

Later in the evening, the students announced that torch processions would be held across the country at 7:30pm in protest of both the unproductive meeting and the recent attack on students in Cumilla.

On Wednesday, over a thousand students of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute blocked the road at Tejgaon from morning till evening, severely disrupting traffic and causing public inconvenience.