Teachers-employees' strike: Many returning without service

A woman and his daughter, who came from Narayanganj, were standing in front of a room on the second floor of the registrar building on the Dhaka University campus.

They spoke to Prothom Alo around 11:00am on Monday. The daughter, who passed from an institution affiliated with Dhaka University, will go to the US, so they came for attestation of academic documents, as well as to take the transcript. The university staff did not complete the task.

Prothom Alo spoke to one of the officials from that room. Wishing anonymity, the official said they could not provide services due to the ongoing work abstention. Association leaders also directed them to stop working, the official added.

Most of the building’s rooms were locked at the time with notices on work abstention being seen hanging in front of several offices. Few people also came to receive services.

A procession of officials and employees was underway in front of the registrar's building and the teachers’ gathering was at a little distance.

Teachers, officials and employees of the public universities have been observing work abstention since 1 July across the country pressing their three-point demand including the revocation of the circular on ‘Prottoy’ scheme under the universal pension scheme. There are currently 55 public universities in the country and the strike is underway at 39 universities.

Regarding this, a leader of the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association said the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers Association (FBUTA) called the strike, but there are several new universities that have not yet started academic activities.

Besides, several universities including medical universities have no teachers’ association, which is why no demonstration is happening there, but everyone supports the demands.

The movement entered the ninth day on Tuesday. Until yesterday, classrooms and offices were locked. No classes and examinations take place. Services are postponed at the administrative building; as a result, many people returned without receiving services including academic certificates.

The scenario was more or less the same at various public universities including Rajshahi University, Jahangirnagar University and Chittagong University. As protesters vowed to continue with the movement, fear looms large over session jams at universities.

Like the previous days, teachers gathered in front of the Arts Building on the Dhaka University campus. Addressing the gathering, Akhtarul Islam, president of the FBUTA and a professor at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST), said they are waging movement for future generations and would continue the movement until their three-point demand is met.

Speaking to Prothom Alo on Monday afternoon, FBUTA general secretary Nizamul Haque Bhuiyan said they are in touch with the authorities concerned but no decision has been taken yet to hold any formal meeting.

Meanwhile, Prothom Alo’s Jahangirnagr University correspondent reported many students could not collect their certificates as officials, as well as academic activities, remain postponed due to work abstention.

Several former students came to the exam controller's office to collect their master’s certificates, but they could not collect those as the officials were on work absenteeism.

Monica Akter, a 46th batch student in environmental science, received a scholarship from a university in Japan. She was instructed to send the original certificates by 16 July, and it takes at least five days to arrive documents in Japan, but she found everything shut at the exam controller's office.

Rooms were also seen locked at the new administrative building.

Prothom Alo’s Rajshahi University correspondent reports officials of the certificate department at the administrative building said many students are coming from far away to collect certificates, but they could not help them.

Rajshahi University’s public relations office director professor Pranab Kumar Panday said offices are open but officials and employees are not doing any tasks.

Prothom Alo’s Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET) correspondent reports teachers, officials and employees have refrained from all kinds of activities including classes, exams and official activities. About 800 students in the final years (2018-19 session) became unable to collect their certificates.

Enamul Haque, a student at the Department of Mechatronics and Industrial Engineering, said he completed his academic activities one and a half months ago, but he could not apply to two foreign universities for higher study as he did not collect his certificate. He cannot apply for jobs either.