THIS is unacceptable that the authorities have so far not attended to grievances of the polytechnic students taking to the street to push for their six-point demand. The students have rallied for the past few days and the protests appear to be intensifying. The polytechnic students on April 20 threatened a long march to Dhaka from outlying areas if the government fails to respond to their demand early. The demand mostly relates to the enhancement of polytechnic education and broadening their employment opportunities, among others. The demand includes scrapping the scope of admission to diploma engineering courses at any age, launching a four-year curriculum in English medium for polytechnic students, taking legal action against the organisations appointing diploma engineers to positions lower than 10th grade, forming a technical and higher education ministry and a technical education reforms commission and imposing a ban on appointing people having no technical education background as assistant directors, directors, board chairs, deputy secretaries, examination controllers and principals for running the technical education system.
Polytechnic students have, in fact, demanded for the past few months that their grievances should be addressed. The students of both public and private polytechnic institutes on April 16 enforced road blockades to push for their demand while law enforcers charged at them with truncheons in Cumilla, exacerbating the situation. The next day, they announced a blockade, including a railway blockade, which, however, was relaxed after a meeting with the additional secretary of the Technical and Madrasah Education Division. 聽Dissatisfied about the outcome, the students decided to continue with the movement. The students, under the banner of Polytechnic Student Movement Bangladesh, held a shroud procession on April 18 and covered the signs of their institutions with red cloth, brought out processions and formed human chains carrying red banners the next day. In such a situation, the reluctance of the education authorities to address the grievances of the students and the attack on the students at some places do not appear to be the way the issue should be dealt with. Most of the demands that polytechnic students have made relate to their education, employment and irregularities and shortcomings in the polytechnic curriculum.
The authorities should, therefore, immediately sit with the protesting students, heed their grievances and address them before the demonstrations get more intense or take a bad turn. In the meantime, the authorities should by no means be high-handed with the protesting students.
