Teachers' Recruitment: Political link preferred over quality

Political and regional identities are getting preference for being appointed as teachers in public universities instead of academic qualities, compromising the quality of education, said Prof Sayeed Ferdous, of anthropology department at Jahangirnagar University.

The universities authorities are busy increasing their “vote bank” by recruiting teachers of poor quality, which gives a wrong message to meritorious students, he said.

He made the comments while addressing the concluding day of a two-day teachers' convention on “What kind of university do we want: higher education policy and structure” on the JU campus yesterday.

The convention was organised by University Teachers' Network, a left-leaning university teachers' group, to discuss how to improve the quality of education at universities.

Getting promotion without conducting any research shows a lack of congenial environment at universities, said Prof Fahmidul Haq, of Dhaka University. 

“Publication and research are not the same things. We are publishing, not researching,” said Mohammad Azam, another DU teacher. 

Kazi Farid, of Bangladesh Agricultural University, said, “Due to a lack of accountability, many teachers remain absent from their classrooms. It's a big problem in teaching profession.”  

In earlier session, Sumon Rahman, of University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB), and Obhinnyu Kibria Islam, of Jashore University of Science and Technology, jointly presented an article on “Out of autonomous universities: experience of government and private universities”.

Prof Afsan Chowdhury of Brac, Nasir Ahmed of Jagannath University and Prof Salimullah Khan of ULAB discussed this topic. 

In the second half of the event, Rushad Faridi, of economics department at DU, presented an article on “Teaching and Research”, while Chittagong University teacher Ar Raji, DU teacher Mohammad Azam and Kazi Farid of Bangladesh Agricultural University discussed the issue.

Begum Rokeya University teacher Mahmudul Haque shared the experiences of getting his job after he filed a case against the university authorities.   

Prof Anu Muhammad, one of the organisers of University Teachers' Network, said they would disclose their recommendations soon at a press briefing.