96pc students deprived of residential facilities

At Sylhet’s historic Murari Chand (MC) College, 96 per cent of students have no access to residential facilities. As a result, most are compelled to live in rented hostels outside the campus, where living, food, and transport expenses are three to four times higher.

Apart from financial strain, students face insecurity, harassment from local miscreants, and various other problems in living outside the campus. Studies are also disrupted due to a shortage of teachers. Making matters worse, the college canteen is not in operation, and toilets across the campus remain dirty.

According to the college authorities, the institution, established in 1892, is situated on 144 acres of land in the Tilaghar area of Sylhet city. The college currently has around 15,000 students, but only 586 of them have dormitory facilities.

Among them, 375 male students reside in six blocks of the century-old hostel and a new five-storey hostel, while 211 female students stay in two separate hostels. Consequently, around 96 per cent of the students live in rented hostels outside the campus, while only 3.91 per cent enjoy residential facilities.

Four students deprived of accommodation facilities complained, since they could not manage hostel seats, they had to rent hostels outside the campus. As a result, their combined costs for lodging, food, and transport went up by three to four times, but their families are not financially well-off. They also mentioned theft, extortion, and harassment by local miscreants there.

Saeed Hasan, a fourth-year student in the mathematics department, said, “There is no separate library or common room for male students. Excessive mosquitoes make studying difficult. The medical centre lacks proper treatment facilities and medicine supply.”

“Many rooms have broken doors and windows, while tables and beds are infested with termites. Sometimes snakes enter through gaps in the door. The third block and the Shaheed Srikanta block of the century-old hostel are in poor condition,” he added.

Acknowledging these issues, principal of the college Golam Ahmed Khan said there are no plans to construct any new hostel at the moment, so the accommodation crisis is unlikely to be resolved soon. But, efforts will be made to address other problems, he added.

The statistics department at the college has nearly 700 students enrolled but there has been only one permanent teacher against four posts there for the past four years. Although two part-time ‘guest teachers’ have been hired to diffuse the crisis, the situation has hardly improved.  This is disrupting studies across postgraduate, honours, undergraduate, and higher secondary levels.

Head of the department, Mohammad Mohsin Ali, said, “In addition to regular classes, there are 18 practical and project courses running. With only a few teachers, it’s extremely difficult to conduct classes every day. Despite informing the authorities, the vacancies remain unfilled.”

It’s the same picture in the department of Islamic history and culture as well. Here too, only one teacher is employed at present, though there should be five as per regulations. College authorities said most departments, including the department of statistics and the department of Islamic history and culture, face teacher shortages.

Out of 139 sanctioned posts counting the posts of principal and vice-principal, only 103 teachers are currently in service. The college offers undergraduate courses in 15 subjects, postgraduate courses in 16 subjects, alongside BA, BSS, and BSc general degrees and higher secondary classes in science stream.

College principal Golam Ahmed Khan told Prothom Alo that the teacher shortage is disrupting classes, especially in the department of statistics and the department of Islamic history and culture. They have informed the ministry of education about the vacant posts, he said.

Students complained that toilets in nearly every department remain dirty all the time and emit a foul smell because they are not cleaned regularly.

The college authorities said that of the 61 sanctioned officer and staff positions, 31 are currently filled.

In addition, another 130 people are working on a ‘master roll’ basis. They claimed these employees clean the departments and toilets regularly, but due to the large number of students using the toilets every day, the facilities get dirty very quickly.

Since there are no canteens operating inside the college the students to suffer the inconveniences. Meanwhile, the only auditorium on campus is also in a dilapidated condition, with insufficient seating and most benches broken. There aren’t enough electric fans either.

Imran Hossain (Uzzal), general secretary of the Mohona Cultural Organisation active in the college said that the auditorium has zero modern facilities. So, no event can be organised properly at the college auditorium.

Speaking about the canteen and auditorium issues, Principal Golam Ahmed Khan said, they have carried out some renovations in the auditorium recently and have added a few sofa sets as well. Other problems will also be resolved soon. As for the canteen, although they have taken the initiative to reopen it, no one is willing to take on the responsibility of running it, he added.

A source at the college claimed that no one wants to operate the canteen out of the fears that leaders from certain student organisations might demand free meals. Due to such records in the past, the process has repeatedly been disrupted despite several initiatives by the authorities, added the source.