The government has decided to hold examinations of seven colleges affiliated with the University of Dhaka as per schedule following the health rules.
Education Ministry on Wednesday announced the decision after the students of those colleges staged angry demonstrations to drum up supports in favour of their demands of continuing exams.
Meanwhile, the students withdrew all of their protests programmes immediate after the government took the decision. The students had staged protest programmes at Nilkhet and Science-laboratory intersections in the capital. They rejoiced over the education ministry's decision and vacated the intersections to let vehicles move.
MA Khayer, public relations officer of the Education Ministry, confirmed the information.
He said, “This decision comes up from an emergency meeting on the students’ movement and demand.”
He said, “Although the meeting was scheduled to be held at 6 pm Wednesday, it started at noon due to the movement of students.
Education Minister Dr. Dipu Moni, Deputy Minister of Education Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury, Secretary of Secondary Higher Education Department Md. Mahbub Hossain, Vice Chancellor and Pro-VC of Dhaka University, Pro-VC and Principals including coordinators of seven colleges attended the meeting.”
According to Education Ministry sources, in the face of students' movement, “the Education Ministry decided to continue the examinations of seven colleges as per schedule but the residential halls will not be reopened during the examinations.”
The seven Dhaka University-affiliated colleges are Dhaka College, Eden College, Shaheed Suhrawardy College, KabiNazrul College, Begum BadrunnessaGovt Women's College, Mirpur Bangla College and Titumir College.
These were affiliated with the university on Feb 16, 2017 in a bid to reduce the pressure on the national university and increase the quality of education.
Earlier on Wednesday morning, hundreds of students of seven colleges gathered in the capital's Nilkhet area and staged movement from morning to afternoon.
In the movement, students chanted slogans demanding the withdrawal of the examination postponement decision of the concerned authorities and asked them to take all ongoing examinations.
Meanwhile, another group of students also protested at Science Lab intersection on Wednesday noon protesting exam postponement. The protest created severe traffic jams in Mirpur Road and Shahbagh-bound streets.
Visiting the spot, this reporter saw law enforcement officials trying to negotiate with the students.
Earlier on Tuesday evening, the principals of 7 colleges had a meeting with the Dhaka University authorities. The meeting decided to postpone the examinations.
In the meantime, ASM Maksud Kamal, chief coordinator of the 7 government colleges and vice-chancellor (education) of Dhaka University, told Bangladesh Post, “The ongoing examinations of the 7 colleges will be continued and the new dates for the exams previously scheduled for Feb 23 and 24 will be announced later.”
However, all of the educational institutions have been closed since March last year following the spread of covid-19 pandemic. The university began taking online classes, but students facing accommodation problems began demanding that the residential halls be reopened.
