Clicky
National, Front Page

Public varsity education bleeds for teacher absence


Published : 06 Mar 2020 10:12 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 05:33 PM

Academic activities are being hampered and students are being deprived of quality education due to the absence of teachers at different public universities of the country. Experts said that the teachers remain absent as they do not need to take proper approval for leave, lack accountability, and give priority to part-time classes over their regular job.

Besides, a large number of teachers do not come back after going abroad to get higher degrees at government expense.  Educationalists said that due to moral degradation of teachers, quality of higher education in Bangladesh has dropped and ranking of the public universities has downgraded among the universities in the world.

According to a recent report published by the University Grants Commission (UGC), teachers of the country’s 37 public universities were absent in 24 percent of their workdays in 2018. Terming the absence of a large number of teachers in public universities a big problem, the educationalists urged the authorities concerned to take quick steps to end the situation. 

According to the 45th UGC report, 2,133 out of 14,322 teachers of the public universities were absent in 2018.  Among the absent teachers, 70 were on leave with pay, 70 were on leave without pay, 25 were on unauthorized leave, and 1,097 on part-time and contract-based leave.  According to the UGC, 4,160 professors, 2,320 associate professors, 4,941 assistant professors and 2,803 lecturers were working at 37 public universities.

Regarding the absence of teachers, National Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury said, “It is impossible to improve the quality of education if there is a crisis of teachers in universities. Even, the students do not get proper higher education.” “In most universities, senior teachers attend workplace at their will. Due to their absence, students are deprived of classes of good teachers. Students coming to universities are going out with some degrees, but without getting quality education,” he said.

Professor Jamilur Reza also said many teachers of public universities are going abroad to attend various courses or degrees, including PhD and M Phil.  They get leave from one to four years for pursuing the degrees but after completing the degrees, many of them do not return to the country, he said.

Jamilur Reza suggested identifying such teachers and taking necessary measures against them. UGC statistics show that of the absent teachers 528 are of University of Dhaka (out of the university’s total 2,188 teachers), 138 of Bangladesh Agriculture University (out of 613), 256 of Bangladesh University of Science and Technology (out of 718), 596 of University of Chattogram (out of 1,311), and 132 of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (out of 552).

President of Chattogram University Teachers Association (CUTA) Professor Emdadul Haque told Bangladesh Post, “It is very unfortunate that a large number of teachers remains absent at different public universities.” “This is a kind of threat to higher education. Such a situation arises when teachers move away from the morality,” he said.

About the absence of teachers UGC Chairman Dr Kazi Shahidullah recently said, “We don’t get expected results from public universities due to the absence of teachers. There was a moral degradation of some teachers. They are more busy earning money than teaching.” The UGC chairman also said that every year the UGC’s annual report highlights the irregularities of teachers of public universities. “It has been given to the President. The President will evaluate it and we will implement his recommendations.”