The Crime Desk: The students of seven colleges affiliated with Dhaka University (DU) have started a protest by blocking the Science lab intersection of the capital, demanding the establishment of a separate public university.
Around 1000 students from seven colleges gathered at Dhaka College from 12:30 PM on Wednesday. Later, the students took a protest march from the campus and blocked the road at the ScienceLab intersection. As a result, traffic stopped in the surrounding area.
The students who participated in the movement say that establishing an independent university with seven colleges is the demand of the hour. Although seven colleges are affiliated with Dhaka University, there has been no improvement in the quality of education; on the contrary, the suffering of students has increased. We gave the government a 24-hour ultimatum to accept the demand, but our demand was not accepted. So we blocked the road.
At this time, the students also raised 3-point demands. They are-
1. A reform committee should be formed at the earliest with a view to making it an autonomous public university with seven colleges.
2. The reform committee will discuss with the teachers, students, and stakeholders of the seven colleges within a maximum of 30 working days to formulate the outline of establishing only one independent university comprising the seven colleges.
3. The reform committee will work in coordination with Dhaka University administration to keep the current structure functioning. So that no kind of environment is created to complicate the sessions of regular students.
Earlier, on February 16, 2017, the Ministry of Education affiliated seven colleges of the capital with Dhaka University with the aim of improving the quality of education on the instructions of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The colleges are Dhaka College, Eden Women’s College, Govt. Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Kabi Nazrul Govt. College, Begum Badrunnecha Govt. Women’s College, Govt. Bangla College, and Govt. Titumir College. Admission process, examination, and education program of students of affiliated colleges are now being conducted by Dhaka University.
