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Spotlight

Some reactions from DU students

Mainul Hassan & Rezaur Rahman

(1) The University of Dhaka, the Oxford of the East, has started after the closure of long 55 days. For such a long time we were literally in the dark about our future. But now we see light again. We look forward to attending classes and listening to the lectures of our highly qualified teacher. From day one every student has started to attend classes. The entire scenario within DU is changing every day.
-Sajal Roy, Dept. of Women and Gender Studies

(2) I am a student of MSS (Sociology). I completed my honours final examination on March 2006. Our result was published in September 2006. After publishing the result I got myself admitted in the Masters course. I hoped our classes would start very soon. But because of the political unrest all over the country and student strike in the university everything came to a stand still position. The university authorities postponed all examinations including the final exams. As a result, almost all the students of the university began to worry about their future. We were expected to complete our classes and sit for the final exams and join some profession. And the number of competitors is increasing day by day in such a competitive job market. So in this situation everyone wants to get a job as soon as they can. After a long vacation of two months the university reopened on 14th January. I became very glad to meet my friends after a long time. We do not expect such a negative impact on education in the name of politics. I would expect the politicians to consider the loss of valuable time of the students of our country.
-Swapan Kumar Bhakta, Dept. of Sociology

In the mind of every student there is a big question about whether his or her education life will end in time successfully? I have had this question in my mind for the last 55 days. I definitely feel very happy that our university has opened again and we can start our education life. I wish to thank God for His blessings and hope He would help us install stability in our education sector, especially at DU.
-Abu Bakar Siddique, DU

Yasin
The ones who suffer the most due to student politics are those ordinary students who are not associated with politics of any kind. While classes remain suspended for extended periods of time, students get frustrated and start to lose interest in studies. We got admitted in DU in 2001 and were supposed to graduate in 2005, but we are still stuck in our fourth year. If classes continue without any disruptions, then we might finally graduate in the middle of 2008. Session jam is already a great problem for us, and the strike has added further misery to the unfortunate students. I hope that the classes remain open and the dispute between the student political wings sees a peaceful solution.

Asif Bin Islam
The ordinary students always want a peaceful environment for studies. An environment free from any kind of distracting activities is the desire of all students. I am not against student politics but any situation should be tackled peacefully. Strike is not a good option. We entered university to secure good results and establish our future. The session jam is already a massive hurdle for us, and if classes remain closed it only adds to our suffering. I hope that from now on the classes will remain open and our studies won't be hampered any more.

Istiaq Mahmud, Ph.D, Chairmman of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
The call for strike should always be considered as the last option in any crisis. It might be called only when all doors to a peaceful solution have been closed. It is the duty of each and every student to maintain the peaceful and serene environment necessary for studies. Student leaders must think about the ordinary students whose studies are hampered. If any situation does occur then leaders should try to solve it peacefully, not through use of muscles or by hampering the normal flow of classes. Instead, they should try to resolve the problem by discussion and meetings among themselves. They must act on their own and not take orders from anyone else. Before taking a decision they must think about the thousands who will be affected by it. I hope that the university will remain open and the normal flow of classes won't be hampered.

Shifan, a student of DU
The government should ensure that normal students don't suffer because of student politics. The curse of session jam is always a major headache for us, and the student leaders calling strikes is making our life very difficult. We want to study. Normal students have no interest in student politics. Every student enters DU with great hopes but once he is in, he finds himself in thick soup. We lose valuable years because of session jams. That is inevitable, but when our classes remain suspended just because of some student leaders who don't know how to solve things in a peaceful manner, then it is absolutely unacceptable.

Hrithik (not real name), a student of the science faculty, along with his friends
It is our great misfortune that we have to see our teachers involved in greedy politics. Do they really care about the ordinary students? They are busy with themselves. It is very pitiful for a teacher to keep the students waiting in class while he/she is occupied in taking classes in private universities. Often we don't even get to see the teacher and our class is suspended because maybe he/she is sick? While the strike was going on the teachers took no steps whatsoever to start classes. If they had gotten involved, it could have been resolved.

At the Shaheed Minar I caught up with some students of Dhaka Medical College (DMC).
They expressed great sorrow about the current situation of student politics in DU.

"Though the natural flow of classes at DMC are not hampered at all, but the fact is that DMC is under DU so it affects us too. It is unacceptable that the offices remain closed because of such unfortunate incidents.
Maybe the effect is minimal to us but why should we be affected? "Today student politics has become a germ that might devour the entire nation one day." They added.

Murshed, a student of DU
If teachers get involved in these situations then normal students will get encouraged to follow them. It is our great fortune that the state of emergency was declared. Otherwise who knows when our classes would have started. I don't even want to think about what would have happened in such a case.

Niaz Mahmud, Monimul Haq and Shafiuddin, all students of the Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Department
Currently, we don't have any session jam in our department, but what happened was really unfortunate. If the classes continue onwards then our exam will be held in the scheduled time and we won't be facing any session jams. But if the natural flow of classes is hampered in anyway than we won't be so lucky.

Karim, a student of DU
During the Oborodh some of our teachers told us to come, but we were afraid that this news will reach the student leaders and they will do anything to prevent it, and maybe would even hurt ordinary students.

Zamal, another student
University is for studies, not politics. DU is supposed to be the hub of the brightest minds of our country. But today when we look at the situation in DU, we don't see the Oxford of the East. What we see is a messy DU scarred by politics and battle of interests between teachers and corrupt student leaders, a DU where anti-social activities flourish under the cover of darkness. This is not the DU we want. It can be changed but the teachers will have to play a leading role. But they rarely have the time and why not? They are busy earning cash. They give most of their time to private universities. Only in the commerce faculty do we see exceptions, but the situation of other faculty and disciplines are different.