Rajshahi University
HC suspends joining at job of 138 teachers, staff at RU
The High Court on Monday postponed the joining date of 138 teachers, officers and other staff at Rajshahi University for three months - as they are known to have been controversially recruited by the last vice-chancellor on an ad-hoc basis on what was his last day in office.
A bench of Justice Md Mojibur Rahman Mia and Justice Md Kamrul Hossain Mollah passed the order after hearing a writ petition.
Besides, the High Court has also issued a rule questioning why it would not be illegal to take action against the former vice-chancellor, Prof M Abdus Sobhan, for corruption, said Lawyer Jyotirmoy Barua who appeared for the court.
The court asked the secretary of secondary and higher education department, chairman of University Grants Commission (UGC), chairman of Anti-corruption Commission (ACC), current vice chancellor and registrar of Rajshahi University and Professor M Abdus Sobhan to respond to the rule.
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At the same time, the university's teacher recruitment policy in 2017 has been suspended and the ACC has been asked to investigate the VC and report to the court on November 14.
Earlier on August 31, the writ petition was filed on behalf of the Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) seeking directions to cancel the appointment.
Prof Abdus Sobhan's last day as the Vice Chancellor of Rajshahi University was on May 6. He violated an Education Ministry embargo by appointing 138 teachers and staffers on his last day in office.
In this regard, a clash broke out between Chhatra League and university officials-employees in the university campus on that day over the appointments.
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Later, the Education Ministry formed a four-member probe committee which termed the recruitment illegal.
As classrooms remain locked, RU teachers roll back time to take classes under trees
All classroom activities of the educational institutions of Bangladesh remain suspended for nearly one and a half years following the COVID-19 outbreak. Last week, Unicef confirmed it to be the second-longest pandemic-related school closure in the world. One effect of this naturally is a growing distance between students and studying.
The institutions have been closed for in-person study since March 18, 2020. The closure has been extended numerous times, and the latest extension announced on Thursday by the Education Ministry takes it till September 11 - meaning there is no possibility of the classes resuming in-person before that date.
Many universities are running their classes online. However, some of the departments of public universities have not started online classes yet.
Read: Educational institutions to remain shut until Oct 3
Private universities are completing semesters by taking exams online. Thus, the students of those universities are being deprived of practical learnings.
Last week marked a groundswell of opinion in favour of reopening, with symbolic protests taking place across some institutions around the country, before the authorities backtracked once again.
One of these symbolic acts was at Rajshahi University, where a group of teachers declared they would start taking classes under a tree on campus if the classrooms are not opened. They then went ahead and started taking classes last Monday.
RU Mass Communication and Journalism department associate professor Abdullah Al Mamun declared in a Facebook post that teachers were ready to take this seemingly quixotic step and a few teachers including Anthropology department associate professor Bokhtiar Ahmed and Folklore department assistant professor Md Amirul Islam expressed solidarity with him.
Read: DU admission tests rescheduled amid pandemic
Talking about the long closure of the institutions, Abdullah Al Mamun said the government is opening the economy and garments industries to improve the country’s economy, but on the other hand, they are producing the unskilled population by closing the educational institutions. This will affect the country’s future, he said.
"Developed countries may have the technological opportunities but we have many obstacles for running online classes," he added.
RU Anthropology department associate professor Bokhtiar Ahmed said, "This is a terrible thing that the educational institutions are closed for a long time. This costs a lot and causes economic, social and educational losses for this country. They could take online exams one year ago but they are taking the decision to take exams online now."
He too pointed out that students from rural areas can’t join online classes due to network and device shortages. Online classes are thus not at all fruitful, he said. There are many differences between distance learning and face-to-face learning.
Md Amirul Islam said such long-term closures cause "negative impacts" on students.
"Few students saw doctors to cure their mental illness as they were suffering from depression during the long closure. Some of them committed suicide. Therefore, we want to come back to the classroom as early as possible," Amirul Islam said.
The teachers say there are many ways to protest against any decision of policymakers, and they chose to take symbolic classes so that their students can also come and collaborate with them, as that would help their message reach the policymakers.
RU teacher takes in-person symbolic class to protest long closure
An associate professor of mass communication and journalism at Rajshahi University on Monday took a symbolic class under a campus tree protesting the prolonged Covid-induced closure of educational institutions.
Prof. Abdullah Al Mamun took the class on relation between media and power at around 11 am in front of the Rabindranath Tagore academic building of the university.
On Friday he declared in a Facebook post to meet the students under a tree from the following week if classrooms don’t open immediately.
Also read: RU to hold exams scrapped in 2019, 2020 in-person from this month
A total of 15 students from different departments were present in the class maintaining corona hygiene rules.
RU Anthropology teacher associate professor Bokhtiar Ahmed and Folklore department associate professor Amirul Islam appeared in the class and delivered speeches.
Amirul declared to take classes from next Tuesday saying symbolic classes seek to send a message to the government to open the educational institutions maintaining hygiene rules immediately.
Also read: Rajshahi University BCL locks up VC
Abdullah termed the government plan aon the opening the educational institutions illogical.
RU to hold exams scrapped in 2019, 2020 in-person from this month
The Rajshahi University authority has decided to hold the examinations in-person from June 20. The exams that were postponed in 2019, then in 2020 due to the pandemic, will all be held in two phases starting later this month.
The decisions came from a meeting held on Thursday between the university administration, deans of the faculties, chairpersons of the departments and directors of the institutes of the university.
Also read: DU to take exams online from July 1 if Covid situation remains unchanged
RU public relation office administrator professor Md. Ajijur Rahman informed this through a press release.
Engineering faculty dean professor Md. Ekramul Hamid said those examinations which were postponed in 2019 will start from June 20, and examinations from 2020 will be held from July 4.
Also read: All professional MBBS final exams postponed
Academic committees of each department will decide to make a routine for exams following the determined dates. They will shorten the syllabuses if needed, he added.
RU acting vice-chancellor professor Ananda Kumar Saha said dormitories of the university will open if the government instructs to that effect. Otherwise, the dormitories will remain closed.
Read Pros and Cons of Reopening Educational Institutions during Pandemic
The contenders to be the next VC of Rajshahi University
Rajshahi University outgoing vice-chancellor Professor M Abdus Sobhan’s term expired on May 6. Pro-vice-chancellor Professor Ananda Kumar Saha on the same day took charge as acting VC by an order from the Education Ministry.
Everyone is concerned as to who would be the next vice-chancellor of the university. The outgoing VC was criticized for allegations of some corrupt activities, and so teachers and students of the university are expecting that an honest teacher will take charge as the next vice-chancellor.
According to the Rajshahi University Ordinance 11(1) section, the vice-chancellor shall be appointed by the chancellor for a period of four years from a panel of three persons to be nominated by the Senate on such terms and conditions as may be determined by the Chancellor and shall be eligible for reappointment for a further period of four years.
Rajshahi University BCL locks up VC
The Vice Chancellor (VC) of Rajshahi University (RU) Prof. M Abdus Sobhan on Sunday was locked up in his residential building by the leaders and activists of the Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) RU wing.
A meeting of the Finance Committee was scheduled at 10:30 am in the VC's residential building.
It is learned that the protesters locked the main gate of the building at 8:30 am to postpone the meeting disrupting the members of the committee.
RU Proctor Prof. Lutfar Rahman said, "There was a meeting of the finance committee today, but no one from the committee could enter the building for the protesters."
Faruk Hasan, vice-president of the RU BCL said, “The education ministry had sent a letter last December alleging various irregularities against the VC. This clarifies his involvement with corruption.”
He further said that they feared VC M Abdus Sobhan would commit major irregularities in Sunday's meeting and that's why they had taken a stand to postpone the meeting.
Mortar shells, rocket launcher recovered from RU pond
Police on Friday recovered two mortar shells and a rocket launcher from a pond near Shaheed Shamsuzzoha Hall of Rajshahi University.
A local boy found them around noon and informed police.
Motihar Police Station’s Sub-Inspector Imran Hossain said the mortar shells and rocket launcher were kept at the police box near the Baddhabhumi area of the university.
RU Proctor Professor Lutfor Rahman said there was a Pakistani army camp during the Liberation War where the mortar shells were found. “We suspect these to be from the Liberation War period,” he said.
Shaheed Shamsuzzoha Hall was used as a camp by the Pakistani occupation force during the war. Recently, ammunitions, believed to be from that period, were found from a pond near the hall.
Last week, another mortar shell was found from the same pond during excavation, which was destroyed by the army the next day.
BHDS of RU to hold online debate competition
Bangamata Hall Debating Society (BHDS) of Rajshahi University will be hosting a baroari Bangla debate competition under the label of “1st BHDS National Baroari Debate Competition 2021” for observing the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence.
The event will start on April 08 and the final round will be held on April 24.
The whole event will be held online.
Also read: Robi-Drishti debate competition concludes in Chattogram
The debate competition is open for all students of Bangladeshi universities.
The first round will be held from April 08 to April 18. Then the first-round winners will participate in the final round.
The convenor of the event is Tazrin Ahmed, who is a student of Law department of Rajshahi University while Nabanita Bishwas, Khusita Rahman Jenvi and Nabilah Haque Simin are co-convenor.
Also read: Debate competition held between physically challenged students of DU, Eden College
BHDS featured a debating workshop, which will be held on April 11 while Tahmida Isha, adviser of the organization and also a student of Accounting and Information System department of the university will speak.
Students from Rajshahi University, Dhaka University, Jahangirnagar University, Chattogram University, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, among others, universities will be on the event as judge.
US Ambassador joins student leadership workshop in Rajshahi
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Earl Miller and Rajshahi Additional Metropolitan Police Commissioner Md Sujayet Islam joined a 'Student Leadership Development Workshop' held in Rajshahi.
Exam postponement: Protests now spread to Rajshahi, Barishal
Rajshahi University students on Thursday staged demonstrations demanding continuation of examinations under its different departments.