NU should be dismantled to improve college edn
Speakers tell AL seminar
Staff Correspondent
National University (NU) should be dismantled as a first step to improve the standard of college education in the country, said Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique, president of Dhaka University Teachers' Association, at a seminar yesterday.He said all colleges must be brought under different universities while the NU, which is full of corruption, can exist only as an affiliation body. Prof Arefin also criticised the unified education system which he said will further degrade the standard of education in the country. The seminar on 'Problems of college education and what should be done' was organised by Education and Human Resource Development Affairs Sub-committee of the main opposition Awami League (AL) at the National Press Club in the city. Inaugurating the seminar AL General Secretary Abdul Jalil said the suggestions, which will come out from the seminar, will be used as guidelines for future education system in the country if the AL is voted to power again. Principal Kazi Faruque Ahmed, president of Bangladesh College Teachers Association, presented the keynote paper at the seminar. In his paper, he listed scores of problems of college education that included absence of talented teachers due to low salary, politicisation of the governing body, and lack of coordination among the boards, universities and the ministry. He also suggested some proposals to resolve the problems that included academic linkage between the lowest and the highest tiers of education, formation of separate grants commission and directorate for colleges, appointment of ombudsman to curb corruption and non-government college teachers through Public Service Commission, granting autonomy to colleges and incorporation of true history of liberation in text books. Prof Abdul Khaleque, former vice-chancellor of Rajshahi University, said bribery is rampant in appointing teachers in colleges ignoring merit. To get rid of the worsening situation there is no alternative to ousting the alliance government through united mass movement. Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Prof A K Azad Chowdhury, who is the chairman of the Education and Human Resource Development Affairs Sub-committee, presided over the seminar. He said as education is the only tool of curbing criminal activities, removing poverty and accelerating development, highest importance has to be given for the improvement of college and university education. Prof Abdul Mannan MP, Dr Abdur Razzak MP and Nurul Islam Nahid also spoke on the occasion.
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