'Education requires meritorious and competent teachers'

Professor Kazi Shahidullah is the chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC). Earlier he had been the vice chancellor of the National University. In a recent interview with Prothom Alo, he talked about the state of higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic, university admission procedures, as well as the irregularities and corruption in various public universities of the country.

The complications that arose in university admissions due to the prevailing pandemic have not cleared. Speaking about the issue, UGC chairman Kazi Shahidullah said that they had held meetings on the matter. Five universities, including BUET (Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology) and Dhaka University, had already decided to have separate admission exams. Many are considering holding online admission tests.

"We met with the university council of vice chancellors and they will discuss the matter among themselves. Then a meeting will be held between UGC, the university council and the education ministry. We hope an outline for admission exams can be drawn up at that meeting," he said.

He said that discussions were also on about how to make online exams effective so that there would be no apprehensions over the exam results.

UGC is considered to be a guardian of universities, so how could the Rajshahi University vice chancellor, Abdus Sobhan, question its authority to investigate the allegations against him?

In response to this question, the UGC chairman said, "Perhaps he raised this question out of personal annoyance, but we are working within the rules and regulations." He said that the complaints that were sent from the university had also been sent to the prime minister's office and the education ministry.

"The education ministry told us to investigate the matter and we have done so. The inquiry committee has submitted its report to the education ministry. We have investigated various allegations into other universities in the past too and the government has taken action in many of the cases."

When asked whether UGC had a role in appointing vice chancellors, Kazi Shahidullah replied, "No, it does not have a role, but it should."

He said that UGC was manned by persons from the universities and so they understood the issues. "There should be a benchmark regarding the appointment of vice chancellors, pro-vice chancellors and treasurers. Certain academic criteria must be met. A vice chancellor must definitely be proficient in research and in administration. UGC has put forward some proposals in this regard."

A person is not generally appointed as vice chancellor for a second term, observed Kazi Shahidullah, explaining that this exacerbated groupings and conflict. "That is why we have stressed the importance of regulations," he added.

When Kazi Shahidullah joined as UGC chairman, he said that there were many challenges to tackle. Have those challenges abated somewhat?

He replied, the main challenge was improving the standard of higher education. He said, "We had even begun work to that end, but coronavirus has turned everything topsy-turvy. At the outset of the corona outbreak we gave approval to private universities to conduct online classes. The public universities did not show any interest at the time. But later they joined too. The problem is, our public universities are not financially sound. Many of the universities lack the technology required for online classes. We met with the ministry and with mobile phone operators. The state-run TeleTalk came up with a package, but their network is said to be weak. We have spoken to other operators too and hope that the problem will be resolved soon."

Has UGC received any resolution to the problems it highlights in its annual report to the president, concerning the state of higher education, the corruption and irregularities of the universities? The standard of education is on a downward slide.

"We have fallen back a bit in the UGC report. The 2018 report was submitted last year. The 2019 report has not been submitted as yet. And then everything came to a halt because of the pandemic. But we are working on improving the curriculum."

He continued, "We are also working on the administrative irregularities and hope things will improve, that the standard of education will improve too."

He said that one of the reasons that the standard of education had fallen was that the rules and regulations were ignored. For instance, he pointed out, the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University in Gopalganj opened up a history department without any permission. It does not have teachers for the purpose, but has admitted students. Teachers are being borrowed from other departments to teach there. Many universities have more students than seats. If the standard of education is to improve, order must be restored everywhere. When our teachers go abroad, they follow the rules perfectly, so why not here?

The UGC chairman was then asked what can be done about the pitiful state of the educational institutions under the National University.

"I was with the National University during crisis times, after the late vice chancellor Aftab Ahmed. It was in total disorder. During my term I restored order there and it now runs on certain rules and regulations. But the problem is that the colleges under the National University lack competent and experienced teachers. Even so, there is political pressure at a local level to start Honours and Masters courses in these colleges. If the overall standard of education is to be improved, we must rise above these pressures.

What about the complaints concerning the private universities which are running in accordance to old laws? Why didn't amend the laws?

"We have taken initiative to amend the laws," said Kazi Shahidullah. "There are problems in both public and private universities. There is a section of private universities with the main objective of selling certificates, not imparting education. And there are a section of students who are happy just with certificates. This propensity in higher education must be stopped."

The UGC chairman was then asked if he wanted UGC to have more authority. The UGC of other countries has a role in policy making which is absent here.

In response, Kazi Shahidullah said that would be good if UGC had more authority. "The government too had said that UGC's authority should be increased and have asked us for a proposal. We are working on that. Then again, the role of an institution often depends on the person. If the person wants, many things can be done. If he doesn't, nothing can be done even with all the authority."

What about the government's announcement that there will be universities in all districts? Many public universities are running without any experienced teachers. Many departments are running without professors or associate professors.

Kazi Shahidullah said that there was need for more universities in the country, but many people did not understand the concept of universities. They think more universities mean more jobs. Universities are like factories to them. But universities are not just to disseminate knowledge, but to create knowledge too. "How is this possible without proficient, qualified and experienced teachers," he asked. That environment has to be created to establish universities, he said, adding that universities must be kept above local and political pressure.

How does the UGC chairman react to none of Bangladesh's universities appearing in the upper ranks of international rankings?

"It is disheartening. We must admit this failure. But it is the university administration that is responsible for maintaining the standard of education. We can only assist in developing the curriculum. That is why we place emphasis on appointing meritorious and competent teachers."

He went on, "When we joined the university, we did not think about salaries and allowances. We took up the teaching profession out of love. That is absent now. Many meritorious students are unwilling to become teachers. More care needs to be taken in appointing teachers. In other countries, no one is directly appointed as a teacher. They have to take tests, carry out research and only then will it be assessed whether they will be able to teach students. We can think on those lines here."