The authorities of Rabindra University of Sirajganj’s Shahjadpur have taken a final decision about Farhana Yasmin, the teacher accused of forcefully cutting students' hair.
While retaining Farhana Yasmin in her post, the university administration has barred her from taking part in educational programmes for several academic years.
The decision was announced through a notice signed by the registrar of the university Sohrab Hossain at the academic building in the university.
Farhana Yasmin, the accused teacher, was instructed to refrain from teaching, conducting exams and all other academic and administrative activities of the students till the end of the academic activities of the Department of Cultural Heritage and Bangladesh Studies for the academic years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20.
In response to the decision, several agitating students said the university authorities had taken such a decision in favour of the accused teacher. They said, such a decision could have been taken long ago in the academic council yet the students of the university were forced to go through a difficult situation.
Registrar Sohrab Hossain told Prothom Alo on Sunday night, “The decision was not posted on the notice board on 28 November. I received a copy of the decision of the syndicate meeting on 21 November and signed it and published it on the notice board on 22 November. The students may have difference of opinion.”
On 26 September, associate professor Farhana Yasmin Baten, also the chair of the Cultural Heritage and Bangladesh Studies department, was charged with forcibly cutting the hair of 14 students.
The following day, Nazmul Hasan Tuhin, a student, tried to take his own life with sleeping pills, prompting the university students to burst into protest. They also boycotted all the exams and classes on 28 September.
Amid the protests, Farhana relinquished her three administrative posts on the same day.
Later, a five-member probe body was formed to investigate the incident. The university finally suspended Farhana on 30 September.