Study leave and loan default

At any given point in time a good number of faculty members of Dhaka University would be overseas pursuing higher academic and research attainments. It is only natural that teachers of Dhaka University, or for that matter, any higher seat of learning, acquire further knowledge and advanced degrees in their chosen fields to let their students benefit from their accomplishments in due course. We grant, there is also the right to career development.
That said, we are constrained to say where things go wrong is when teachers overstay beyond the stipulated study leave period, which is four years maximum, often without any information to the parent organisation. After overshooting the leave period they do not often care to reply to letters from university authorities urging them to return home and resume their duties. The obvious implication of all this is that students are deprived of qualified teaching as the department goes shorthanded. Even if there would be somebody filling in leave vacancy he/she might not be quite the substitute for the absentee teacher. Given our reality of session jam, the question of make-up classes becomes illusory minus the full strength of teachers.
Something even worse has come to light lately. Dhaka University authorities have no clues about the whereabouts of a hundred faculty members who altogether took around Tk 1.8 crore loan before going abroad for higher studies. As many as 110 teachers since 1971 did not return to their posts even after the expiry of their study leave period. They either resigned or were sacked. Only eight of them repaid their loans. This is a culpable offence by itself, let alone the fact that during the study leave they were entitled to receive salary and other allowances from the university.
Clearly, being teachers supposed to set examples as educators, their absenteeism without any trace and loan default constitute a grievous offence. They have actually used the university as a springboard for personal gains abandoning the interest of their alma mater and thousands of their students. They should have the compunction to feel that the nation deserves better from them.