Polytechnic students to hold protest march across the country today

Though the students of the polytechnic institute, demonstrating with a six-point demand, had a meeting with Rehana Yasmin, the secretary of the Technical and Madrasa Education Division of the education ministry, they were not satisfied with that discussion.

Under these circumstances, they have announced that they will continue their demonstration. As part of that announcement, they carried out a torch procession in all the polytechnic institutes of the country at 7:30 pm on Thursday.

One of the demonstrating students of the polytechnic institute told Prothom Alo last night that students from all the polytechnic institutes of the country will carry out a procession, tying shrouds around their heads after the Jumma prayers today, Friday.

Earlier on Wednesday, students of the polytechnic institute demonstrated by blocking roads, highways, and rail tracks in different parts of the country, including Dhaka, with a six-point demand. People had to face trouble all day due to the heavy traffic caused by the road blockade.

Later, they announced daylong ‘rail blockade’ across the country on Thursday. However, it was announced on behalf of the demonstrators on Thursday morning that they have a meeting with the education adviser in the afternoon and the rail blockade programme will remain relaxed until that meeting is held.

As there was a meeting of the advisory council on Thursday, education adviser Chowdhury Rafiqul Abrar (CR Abrar) was not present in the ministry till late in the afternoon. Secretary of the Technical and Madrasah Education Division, KM Kabirul Islam was also outside of Dhaka.

In this situation, a group of representative from the demonstrating students attended a meeting with additional secretary (technical division) Rehana Yasmin. The meeting started around 12:00 pm and ended around 3:00 pm in the afternoon.   

After the meeting, one of the student representatives, Mashfique Islam told journalists that they were given a proposal to attend a meeting with everyone concerned including the education adviser.

However, when they arrived at the Technical and Madrasah Education Division they saw that the education adviser was not present there. As the secretary was in Rangpur he could not be present there either. They had some discussion with the people concerned but those people could not produce any ‘paper work’.

There are no proofs of the steps they say they are taking. They have said that they have amended the recruitment regulations or they have done this and that. However, they (the students) are not finding any visible results of that. The movement will continue until their demands are met, he said.

That student continued that the Karigori Chhatra Andolan Bangladesh (Polytechnic Students’ Movement Bangladesh) was in no way satisfied with the meeting. They call the students but failed to suggest any solution.

In this context, the Karigori Chhatra Andolan Bangladesh in all the polytechnic institutes of the country will move towards stricter programmes based on a united decision. Later, a torch procession was called for in the evening.

In this regard central representative of Karigori Chhatra Andolan Bangladesh, Ramjan Ali told Prothom Alo, “The torch procession has been called in protest of the ‘farcical meeting’ and the attack on polytechnic students in Cumilla. Further decisions will be announced later.”

The first point of the six-point demand announced by the polytechnic students is cancellation of 30 per cent quota of craft instructors for promotion to junior instructor position. It also includes annulment of the High Court’s verdict on craft instructors’ promotion to junior instructor position, change of craft instructors’ designation, dismissal of those involved in the court case, annulment of the appointment of craft instructors recruited in 2021, and immediate correction of that disputed recruitment regulation.

Despite repeated attempts to contact officials of various levels at the Ministry of Education to get their views on these demands of the students, they couldn’t be reached. Later, when contacted senior information officer at the Ministry of Education Siraj Ud-Daula Khan and asked him about the ministry’s views on this matter, he said that he has not been given any instructions in this regard.