Saturday | 5 October 2024 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Saturday | 5 October 2024 | Epaper
BREAKING: ● Sailor dies after oil tanker catches fire in Ctg      ● Ex-president Badruddoza Chowdhury passes away      ● Killing during students' movement: 9 bodies to be exhumed in Sylhet      ● Malaysian prime minister leaves Dhaka for home      ● CA seeks Malaysian support for Bangladesh to be ASEAN dialogue partner      ● Malaysian PM assures of attention to 18,000 Bangladesh workers       ● Bid to kill Khaleda Zia: Sheikh Hasina among 113 sued      

Quota crisis should be solved thru negotiations not by applying brute force

Published : Wednesday, 17 July, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 435
Masum Billah
Thousands of university students across the country took to the streets in response to the incidents of attack in different universities that does not talk about a sound situation of our universities which are the lighthouses of the nation to give direction. Several political parties on Monday condemned attacks on quota protesters allegedly by the ruling Awami League-backed student organization at several universities across the country and demanded arrest of the attackers and a logical reform of the quota system in government jobs. 

The students protesting a quota system witnessed severe attacks on Monday even though we expected restraint from the government and the student wing backed by the government. Not just the students of Dhaka University, students of Jagannath University, Jahangirnagar University, Rajshahi University, Chittagong University, Eden Mohila College and Titumir College  bled on Monday as they came under attack by Chhatra League men. Some newspapers have reported that more than two hundred students were injured. Around 50 students took treatment at the university medical centre of Jahangirnagar University. Of them, 20 were referred to a private hospital in Savar as their condition deteriorated.

 It seems very easy to resort to applying brutal force to squash any protest. However, applying restraint, strategy and reaching a peaceful solution to any difficult issues has always been the way we expect from all concerned. However, it is sad enough that it hardly happens. Both the male and female students of the universities, the highest seats of learning, experienced the serious attack of the student wing of the government that really makes us shocked as what example the future generation will bear when university students have to undergo such type of mayhem. 

The students who have undergone attack have been quite aware of the force and nature of the government backed student wing. Still, they dared to raise protest as they did against Ayub Khans martial law and against Ershad regime. 

Student protesters who had gone to the emergency centre of Dhaka Medical College Hospital with their wounded fellow protesters were also beaten up inside the hospital. We don have language to express this inhuman incident perpetrated by the fellow students of the highest seats of learning. Question arises, will it continue to happen in our universities which must be the place of sanctity, peaceful co-existence of different student wings and the culture of learning and wisdom. 

 Thousands of university students across the country took to the streets in response to the incidents of attack in different universities that does not talk about a sound situation of our universities which are the lighthouses of the nation to give direction. Several political parties on Monday condemned attacks on quota protesters allegedly by the ruling Awami League-backed student organization at several universities across the country and demanded arrest of the attackers and a logical reform of the quota system in government jobs. 

We think the government has many ways to bring back normalcy in the university campuses without applying any brutal force. We do hope to see a sound atmosphere in the university campuses by the sound policy of the government. The agitating students, who have been demanding the reformation of the quota system in government jobs, have announced a new program. They have announced to hold demonstrations and rallies in all educational institutions of the country  today protesting the attack of the Chhatra League on students across Bangladesh. They said, ``Today, we were attacked by outsiders in a planned way. How do outsiders attack students when there is a proctor?

It sounds farce when hundreds and thousands of students have been   protesting and demanding a reduction in the quota system for government jobs blocking the roads and causing untold suffering of the citizens of the country. When BCS questions are available in exchange of money, whats the necessity of emoving or revising quota system? One Bengali newspaper has made a good heading ` Many candidates have become BCS cadre with the help of Sayeed Abed Ali, the former driver of the chairman of PSC. 

When the background of becoming BCS officers following this way, we don have any room to  havedoubt what kind of service they will give to the nation. They start their career through corruption, they get submerged in corruption while doing job, they compel the citizens of the country to give them bribe. They keep the sign of corruption everywhere. But paradoxically, the state promotes these people and continue promoting till any media affords to unearth their depth of corruption. 

And some of them find safe passage to leave the country.  We also expected that the protesting students would talk against this mayhem. However, we did not notice it that has been termed by some columnists that the students demand does not prove any merit as they are just demanding to get  a safe job to run their families  that must not be the prime target of students who gather knowledge being in the university campuses. They rather show their narrowness of mind through it.  Students should have demanded how creatively their talents could have been used for the greater interest of the nation and that must not be confined to some government jobs only. 

They must not vie for being a high level clerk, rather they should clamour for giving them opportunity to utilize their talent, intelligence and inner strength that will serve the humanity and country. I do agree with the columnists. However, we cannot afford to undermine the issues the students have brought as after passing out of the universities, students should usually take up a job to run the families and support their near and dear ones. But in no way, I disagree that they should not remain confined to some narrow ideas of managing a government or secure job just to support the families. University learning must be that noble goal oriented and all concerned should take a note of it. 

The writer is President, English Teachers Association of Bangladesh 


LATEST NEWS
MOST READ
Also read
Is a full-scale war in Middle East imminent?  
How UN stays relevant by prolonging ME crisis
Unchanging value of literature in the age of algorithms
Teachers should focus on social justice in classrooms
Our fiscal transparency in the report of USA
Joviality in self exploration
The observance of the world teacher's day in the new light
Natural gas crisis in Bangladesh: Is LNG the only solution?
Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury
Published by the Editor on behalf of the Observer Ltd. from Globe Printers, 24/A, New Eskaton Road, Ramna, Dhaka.
Editorial, News and Commercial Offices : Aziz Bhaban (2nd floor), 93, Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000.
Phone: PABX- 41053001-06; Online: 41053014; Advertisement: 41053012.
E-mail: info©dailyobserverbd.com, news©dailyobserverbd.com, advertisement©dailyobserverbd.com, For Online Edition: mailobserverbd©gmail.com
🔝