On the night of August 5, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a statement indicating that all government offices, courts, and educational institutions, including schools, colleges, madrasas, and universities, would be reopened. At that time, there was virtually no government in place. During this period, some educational activities were conducted online at the school level. Although a new government was formed on August 8, by yesterday, all public universities and government-private colleges remained closed. However, students returned to their residential halls as soon as the universities were announced to reopen.
During the quota reform movement by students, the outgoing government initially shut down universities and colleges and later all educational institutions. At the same time, all public university residential students were ordered to leave their halls within 24 hours. That state of chaos has now ended. It was expected that normalcy would return to educational institutions as quickly as possible, but that hasn’t happened due to various reasons. Currently, there is a severe administrative vacuum in almost all public universities.
Vice-Chancellors of most universities, including Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi, Jahangirnagar, Shahjalal, Jagannath, and Bangladesh Agricultural University, have resigned. Deputy Vice-Chancellors, Treasurers, Proctors, and Provosts have also resigned. It is known that many other officials are preparing to resign as well. This mass resignation in public universities can be termed as a resignation epidemic rather than just resignations. It is unusual for the administration of so many universities to become vacant with a change in government, but it has happened.
The reason is the appointments based on party loyalty instead of merit and competence. Those who were appointed based on party loyalty do not feel safe after the change of power. This is not only happening in universities but also widely in the government administration.
It is unfortunate that these officials did not maintain the distinction between state administration and universities. The problem is that since July 1, all educational and examination activities in universities have been suspended. The most affected are the students. During this period, the teachers also went on strike in protest against their inclusion in the mandatory pension scheme. They succeeded in their movement as the outgoing government decided to exclude them from the mandatory pension scheme.
The disruption of educational activities has caused significant damage to students’ education, which will be difficult to compensate for. Over the years, session jams in universities had been reduced, but now students will again face session jams. In this situation, there is no alternative but to resume educational activities immediately. It is known that new appointments need to be made in those public universities where the Vice-Chancellors and other officials have resigned.
However, the question remains: who will be appointed to these hundreds of vacant positions? The teachers in our universities are primarily divided into two factions. The endless conflict between these groups has long eroded the unique characteristics of universities. Before August 5, primarily pro-Awami League teachers held various positions. If these vacant positions are filled by pro-BNP teachers, it would not be a wise decision. We believe that the vacant positions should be filled as much as possible by teachers who are beyond party loyalty, with priority given to merit and competence.
The faster this work is done, the better it will be for education.