The protesting students of different polytechnic institutes across the country have decided to go for a tougher movement as their meeting with education ministry officials on Thursday failed to meet their demands.
They, however, kept their pre-announced countrywide rail blockade programme relaxed for Thursday.
After the meeting at the secretariat, the students held a torch procession in the evening in the capital’s Tejgaon area.
Students of different polytechnic institutes in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country on Wednesday staged demonstrations by blocking roads, highways, and rail tracks to press home their six-point demands, including the cancelation of a High Court verdict allowing the promotion of craft instructors to junior instructors.
Karigori Chhatra Andolan Bangladesh, in a special message on Thursday morning, said that they would hold a meeting with the education adviser following the intervention of the chief adviser.
During the meeting, they relaxed the countrywide rail blockade and said that the next course of the movement would be announced based on the meeting’s outcome.
A group of representatives of the protesting students met with the Technical and Madrassah Education Division’s additional secretary Rehana Yeasmin on Thursday at the secretariat at about 12:00 noon. The meeting continued for about three hours.
Md Mashfiq Islam, one of the representatives of the Karigori Chhatra Andolan, Bangladesh, told the journalists that the education adviser Professor Chowdhury Rafiqul Abrar and the Technical and Madrassah Education Division secretary KM Kabirul Islam were not present in the meeting.
‘We discussed with some concerned officials but they could not show us any paperwork on our demands,’ he said, adding, ‘We are not satisfied at all’.
‘They (officials) could not give us any solution after calling us here,’ he said.
He said that all polytechnic students across the country and the Karigori Chhatra Andolan had decided to go for tougher movement to meet their demands.
‘We will announce our next course of action soon,’ he added.
Another representative of the platform, Md Al Imran, alleged that different non-technical people were appointed to the technical board during the past ‘fascist’ regime. ‘These people are responsible for the current poor condition of the technical education.’
Jubayer Patwari, another representative of the platform, said that they had been continuing the movement for eight months but there were no results.
‘We want the implementation of our demands immediately,’ he said and alleged that the ministry officials were trying to delay the processes.
Students were attacked in different areas during the protest, he added.
The protesters urged the government to scrap the scope of admission in diploma engineering courses at any age, launch a global standard four-year curriculum in English medium for polytechnic students, take legal action against the organisations that are appointing diploma engineers in posts lower than 10th grade, form a separate Technical and Higher Education Ministry and a Technical Education Reform Commission, and impose a ban on appointing people having no technical education background as assistant directors, directors, board chairman, deputy secretaries, examination controllers, and principals for running the technical education system.