Buet teachers to go slow
The agitating Buet teachers have postponed their en masse resignation until July 30 to “facilitate” government efforts in resolving the ongoing crisis at the university.
However, they will continue their two-hour sit-in in front of the Buet council building to press for their demands as per a meeting decision of Buet Teachers Association yesterday.
On July 16, the association threatened to resign en masse if Buet VC Prof SM Nazrul Islam and Pro-VC Prof M Habibur Rahman do not quit by 4:00pm today.
Meanwhile, teachers, students and employees resumed their movement yesterday morning after a two day break as they had received no decision from the government on their demands.
Prof Mujibur Rahman, president of the association, told The Daily Star, "We postponed the programme to facilitate government steps to break the impasse."
Also, former VCs and alumni members had requested the association to reconsider the en masse resignation programme, saying the government was making headway in bringing a solution.
Ex-VCs Abdul Matin Patwari, MH Khan and Iqbal Mahmud, Buet Alumni Association President Prof Jamilur Reza Choudhury and some other former students made the request in a letter on Friday, Mujibur said.
"We have trust in the government that it will soon come to a decision regarding the removal of the VC and Pro-VC."
Asked whether the teachers were backtracking from the movement, Prof Mujibur said, "The decision had to be postponed since the education minister had considered our programme as a barrier on the way to a solution."
"It's neither a political movement nor do we want to put the government in an embarrassing situation," he said. They would sit on July 30 to review the situation and hopefully, the government would take decision and remove the duo by the time.
However, Buet sources said the association had adopted the stance as some teachers raised questions about the legality of en masse resignation. The prime minister's resentment over their announcement of such an extreme programme was also a factor.
The Buet situation took a new turn as the teachers announced the action plan even though Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid had urged them to call off the movement following his meeting with ex-VCs, senior teachers and alumni on Monday.
The anti-VC agitation began on July 11 after the authorities shut the institution for 44 days in advance for Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr. It gained momentum when a large number of students joined them.
The same day, the heads of all faculties, institutes and departments of Buet announced resignation.
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