Two cases have been filed against 47 people including director general of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE),chairman of Barishal Education Board over suspension of a headmaster and another staff of a high school ‘without any reason’.

Those suspended were Mahbubul Islam of Guthia Maheshchandra High School and MLSS Samir Krishna Mandal.

They filed the cases with the with Barishal court on Sunday.

Director General of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE),  chairman of Barishal Education Board, School Inspector of Barishal DSHE, Barishal district education officer, Ujirpur upazila Secondary education officer, deputy director of DSHE of Barishal, deputy director of DSHE, managers of Rupali Bank Bhabanipur branch, Guthia Branch and Agrani Bank Banaripara branch and managing committee president Md Aurangajeb are among the accused, said lawyer of the plaintiffs Advocate Azad Rahman .

According to a case filed by Samir Krishna accusing 24 people, he joined his post on May 27, 2015 in Guthia Maheshchandra High School. Without any reason he was suspended from his post on October 17, 2020 following a decision of managing committee.

According to another case filed by Mahbubul accusing 23 people, said that he joined the school as headmaster on April 28, 2014.  He was suspended illegally on October 15, 2020. 

In the case he also mentioned that on September 21, Nizam Sardar, a member of the managing committee, took the key of the school's store room from the headmaster.

The headmaster mentioned in the case that taking the key of the room where the school belongings are kept is ill motivated.

Read Also: 4 Khulna University teachers served showcause notice

Speakers at a discussion in the capital on Saturday opposed the government’s decision of giving students auto-promotion without holding HSC and other examinations, saying it is part of a ploy to destroy the country’s education system and the nation.

They urged the government to review its decision and work out an effective mechanism like taking exams on a small scale for properly assessing the merits of the students.

Education Reform Initiative (ERI) arranged the programme titled ‘Auto-Pass in the Exams During Corona and the Present and Future of Education’ at the Jatiya Press Club.

Speaking at the programme, Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder Zafrullah Chowdhury said being a doctor current Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni decided to give students auto-pass persuaded by others. “There’s no reason to adopt the auto-promotion system.”

He said one reason can be there behind giving students auto-promotion to destroy the country’s education system and force them to go to other countries like India for quality education. “Lakhs of our students have now been going to India for studies in recent years. So, unwarily they hold some sort of love for India.”

Zafrullah, a freedom fighter, said India now earns more than fifty times higher benefits a year by doing business in Bangladesh than it spent on feeding one crore Bangladeshis during eight months of the country’s Liberation War in 1971.

Referring to newspaper reports, he said India received $128 billion from Bangladesh as remittance in 2018.

Zafrullah said around 10 lakh Indians, including 5 lakh officially, have been working in Bangladesh.

Despite having different degrees, he said the students in the country remain unemployed as Bangladesh’s education quality has been falling gradually. “The auto-promotion option has been adopted to destroy the education system and quality further.”

Zafrullah said when everything has reopened after the coronavirus shutdown there is no reason to keep the educational institutions closed and cancel exams on the pretext of the corona. “This’s nothing but a ploy to destroy the nation. This government did it as it got auto-promotion without any test during 2014 and 2018.”

He said it is true that the government has been established by adopting the auto-pass system. “But why have the opposition parties long been following this system? The largest opposition party BNP and other parties of good persons like CBP are also exercising it as their leaders are holding posts based on an auto-system. When auto-pass is exercised in politics, people lose their confidence in political parties. We all should think about it.”

The freedom fighter also said as leaders are getting party posts without any test, they are also not taking any risk and engaging in any fight to establish people’s rights. “Political parties must stop the practice of political dynasty and making leaders through auto-pass. They must hold councils regularly and ensure democratic practice within their parties to get people’s support. Auto-pass shouldn’t be there anywhere, be it in politics or in examinations.”

The Gonoshasthaya Kendra founder said the prices of all medicines could be halved within 15 days had there been a pro-people government. “Medicine companies are not only making huge profits but also robbing people of their pockets.”

Nagorik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna said the government is not reopening the educational institutions just in fear of facing a student movement. “When everything is reopened what’s the reason behind keeping the educational institutions shut. You must reopen those today or tomorrow, and then you won’t be able to resist students from taking to the streets.”

He said when a government and a Prime Minister have been installed through the auto-pass, they will naturally think about auto-promotion of students instead of thinking about any suitable solution. “The country is passing through a serious political crisis as all parties here follow the auto-pass system.”

 “Auto-promotion is a matter of shame. Those who’re supposed to get the auto-pass certificates in 2020, they’ll have to bear it as a stigma throughout their whole life.  The students should raise their voice against it,” Manna said.

He said the county’s education, economy, women and people are not safe in the hands of the current regime as it ‘usurped’ power. “How they have become a government, Prime Minister, Minister and MPs by grabbing power. We don’t accept them and we must continue our fight and take to the streets to ensure their fall.”

Former state minister for education Ehsanul Haque Milon said auto-pass cannot be accepted as it will only harm the nation and the country’s education sector.

“The government has adopted the auto-promotion system without thinking about other alternatives. The exams can be held on a limited scale. We can also find out a proper assessment method like other countries in the world,” he observed.

Also read: No HSC, equivalent exams this year

The Dhaka University (DU) authorities are decentralising the entry tests for the 2020-21 academic year to curb the spread of coronavirus and slashing the total marks by half to 100.

Admissions tests used to take place in Dhaka in previous sessions but this time, the tests will be held across the divisions.

"We’ve decided not to hold online admission tests,” DU Pro-VC (academic) Prof ASM Maksud Kamal said. “We’ve initially decided to hold division-wise tests to ensure the safety of the students considering the Covid-19 pandemic."

"We’re willing to set up the centres and hold the tests after talks with the authorities of the universities in divisions across the country," he said.

A meeting of the Deans' Committee on Tuesday, presided over by Vice-Chancellor (VC) Prof Md Akhtaruzzaman, took these decisions rejecting online admission tests.

Sources at the meeting said that of the 100 marks, 20 will be reserved to evaluate each aspirant’s score on the basis of results of School Secondary Certificate (SSC) and Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC). Previously, 80 marks were allotted to evaluate SSC and HSC results.

Admission tests will be held on 80 marks. Deans' Committee members, declining to be named, said that 50 would likely be kept for the written test and 30 for MCQ. These were 45 and 75 in the last academic session respectively.

Prof Sadeka Halim, dean of the Social Science faculty, said that the distribution of newly set 80 marks has not been determined but they would prioritise more on the written part.

The minimum criteria for applying into different units (A/B/C/D) have also remained the same and the authorities will fix the dates after the result of HSC is published.

The HSC results are usually published in the first week of May. The universities hold entry tests from the second week of September till the end of November. But this year, HSC results will be published in December, while dates for admission tests of different public universities will be set later.

This year, all 1.3 million HSC examinees will pass. It will basically make all of them eligible to sit for university admission tests.

There are currently 60,000 available seats at 39 public universities in the country.

Also read: No uniform view on HSC cancellation among students, parents

Khulna University authorities have issued show-cause notice to its four teachers seeking explanation over ’ instigating students during a movement’ in January.

The university administration has identified the involvement of the teachers in the movement of the students on January 1 and 2 this year.

They were given letters seeking  explanation on October 17.

Besides, the accused teachers were asked to come up with reply within three working days.

The teachers did not respond within the stipulated time and appealed to the authorities to give them four more weeks.

The accused teachers are—Abul Fazal, assistant professor, Shakila Alam, lecturer of Bangla Deparment , Hoymonty Shukla Kabery, lecturer of  History and Civilization Discipline and Ayesha Rahman Asha, lecturer of English.

The letters, signed by the acting registrar of the university Khan Golam Quddus, said that on January 2, some agitating students locked the administrative building of the university and besieged the  vice-chancellor and other officials and employees.

Involvement of some teachers in the incident were detected, said the letters.

Read Also: 27 to compete for each seat in admission test