The students of Titumir College blocked the road causing untold sufferings to thousands of commuters, passengers, patients, women and children contributing to cause huge traffic jam across Dhaka city on 18 November. They threw stones at the trains injuring some passengers including children and women. The following pertinent questions arise when the students clamour for declaring the college into a university. (a) Does Bangladesh experience the smaller number of universities than its requirement? (b) What contributions are our existing universities make? (c) Is it a big problem in education not to turn Titumir College into a university? (d) What’s the relation between harassing the passengers and injuring the children and declaring Titumir College into a university? (e) Is it the responsibility of the students to decide which college will be developed into a university (f) Is it the principal work of the Interim Government in the education sector now?
The population and number of vehicles need 25 percents roads of any city but Dhaka city sees only 7 percent means it already faces huge traffic jam. Every day millions of valuable working hours are lost due to traffic jam. On top of that, the procession of the students and many other professionals who take to the street from time to time-causing untold sufferings to the city dwellers. Students’ basic learning should be that they don’t have any right to block the streets, create chaos and stop vehicles and passers-by from going their workplaces and destinations. They must know trains cannot be stopped suddenly. When these basic ideas remains unknown to the students, we must think why they are raising these illegal demands? What for? For whose interest? Who instigated them to do it?
What is the perception of common people about the colleges and universities? They know the students of these institutions take regular extortion from the street vendor to posh shops located around them. They create chaos and turn the adjacent areas into a battle field from time to time that ensues from a negligible reason or even for nothing. They always try to show their muscle power and take free food from the adjacent hotels and restaurants. That means the general people don’t want to see any more college or university adjacent to their business centers or homes as clashes among the student wings or with locals may erupt anytime where and lethal weapons or arsenals are used causing serious harm business and normal life. How do the conscious and educated people evaluate the students of general colleges or universities? They think these institutions just contribute to increasing the burden of educated unemployed which stands as a worse problem than uneducated unemployed people who can earn their living by doing any kind of physical labour that the educated unemployed hardly do. They rather create burden on their parents as well as on the society and state. They are fully averse to do any physical labour, just wait for a job and this long waiting keeps them unemployed that the society does not want to see anymore.
What can we see when we our glance at the specialized higher educational institutions of the country I mean medical college, engineering universities and agricultural universities? We are undoubtedly producing thousands of doctors every year but the people receive treatment in India, Thailand and Singapore as nobody can rely on the expertise of the Bangladeshi doctors. We are producing engineers but the roads, culvert’s, flyovers we build on the advices of Chinese or Japanese engineers. Our engineers vie for becoming administrators or go abroad for doing other jobs. Similarly, our agricultural graduates opt for administrative or police jobs or in banks. When this is the situation why do we produce them?
These are the results of our specialized institutions. Where is the position of our general educational institutions? We again see big companies or multinational bodies working in Bangladesh bring the graduates having 21st century skills from our neighbouring countries as the graduates our colleges and universities produce usually don’t acquire any skills required for today’s job market. They acquire neither language skills, nor any technical skills, communication or presentation skills. When this is the situation, do we have any reason to develop big factories of unemployment to be developed into universities? Students must perceive this public perception that the nation cannot afford to see anymore burden of unemployment created by the people getting only certificates
The fallen government planned to establish at least one public university in each district. This nefarious design was to nurture the musclemen in the universities and to keep every nook and corner of the country under its grip. We have already many universities which we could not have been established as learning and research centers that is the basic idea of a university. We could not turn our existing universities into learning or human resource centers rather turned them into the dens of student cadres and teacher politicians whose basic interest revolves round greasing the political government and their cronies banishing the real spirit of higher educational institutions.
The common people of the country have to face harassment everywhere. Once again, they see the same thing created by the students that they don’t want to see any more. Society and state nurture students so that they can change their lives positively and contribute to the society and country for going ahead. When they see they are producing unemployed individuals and cadres instead, they will never embrace the idea students want. If students have to demonstrate for realizing any demand, that must be very systematic and peaceful without disturbing the common people. To realize any demand, they must accept the support and sympathy of the general people. Instead of doing, when they try to vex people, their demand will not be supported by anybody. They could let their demand know the authorities concerned through electronic and print media, press conference, standing beside the road with placards. Without doing that, they have resorted to violence that nobody accepts and supports. They don’t have any right to disturb the normal course of life the citizens and that is the first and foremost learning of the students studying in our higher educational institutions.
Writer: Former teacher of Cadet College
