DU-Affiliated Colleges: Session jam leaves goal of better education unfulfilled

Seven and a half years into the affiliation of seven colleges with Dhaka University, students feel they are faced with new problems, most notably session jam and delayed publication of results, in addition to existing ones relating to poor infrastructure.

Both students and teachers have blamed the session jam on delayed publication of academic results in most departments. They have said evaluation of exam scripts and preparation of tabulation sheets take a long time, causing the delay in publishing results.

The seven colleges had originally been under the DU. Since 1992 they had been brought under the National University. Following a directive by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, their affiliation with the DU was resumed in 2017.

IK Selim Ullah Khondaker, the first coordinator for the seven colleges, has said the affiliation was resumed with the aim of improving the quality of education in the colleges.

"But the aim of better education remains unfulfilled due to the delay in publication of results. By the time the results are published, students have already attended the next year's classes for seven or eight months."

— Said IK Selim Ullah Khondaker

"But the aim of the affiliation remains unfulfilled due to the delay in publication of results. By the time the results are published, students have already attended the next year's classes for seven or eight months," he explained.

"So, if a student finds out that they have failed to obtain the minimum grades for a promotion, having attended the next year's classes for over half a year or so, they will naturally feel shocked because then they will be required to finish the courses from the previous year and start all over again," said Khondaker, also a former principal of Kabi Nazrul Government College and Dhaka College.

The seven colleges are: Dhaka College, Eden Mohila College, Government Shaheed Suhrawardy College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, Begum Badrunnesa Government Mohila College, Mirpur Government Bangla College, and Government Titumir College.

DEMANDS MADE BY STUDENTS

Since June this year, students from the seven colleges have taken to the streets several times, pressing for various demands including publication of results within 90 days, opportunities for improvement exams for three subjects, having an academic calendar, increasing the number of teachers and classrooms at the colleges, and relaxation of the CGPA conditions.

In the latest instance, several hundred students blocked the capital's Nilkhet-New Market intersection on August 16, 22 and 27, demanding the DU authorities lower the minimum CGPA requirement for promotion to the next academic year.

Taslim Chowdhury, a student of Titumir College, said they have placed their demands to the DU authorities, but nothing has changed so far.

"Due to the Covid-19 lockdowns, we are already suffering from delay in academic activities for a year. If there is delay in publishing the results, our session jams will only increase," he told The Daily Star recently.

WHAT CAUSES THE DELAY?

DU data shows that 17 out of 25 departments published third-year results four to seven months after the exam. According to DU rules, however, the authorities should publish results within 90 days after the completion of an exam.

Prof ASM Maksud Kamal, pro vice-chancellor (academic) of DU, said excepting four or five departments, all others published results in due time.

"We usually serve show-cause notice to the departments that fail to submit scripts or prepare tabulation sheets in time," he added.

Scripts are evaluated by teachers of both the seven colleges and the DU while the tabulation sheets are prepared only by the DU teachers.

Teachers prepare the result tabulation manually, which delays their work as the authorities are yet to introduce automation for the job, said a former principal of one of the seven colleges, wishing not to be named. One of the reasons for not introducing automation might be financial benefits, he added.

In 2018, the authorities bought scripts containing the option of Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) for automation of the tabulation system, spending around Tk 1 crore.

Contacted, Tofail Ahmed, former DU science faculty dean and also former chief of the committee that made the recommendation of automation, said he did not know why the automation did not come through.

A teacher gets Tk 75 to Tk 150 per script for tabulation. Usually, each teacher tabulates around 4,000 to 5,000 scripts per academic year, according to DU sources.

Dismissing the allegation of financial benefits, Maksud Kamal said, "Many outsiders assume that Dhaka University teachers evaluate scripts and prepare tabulation for the money, but this is totally wrong. They all perform these tasks as part of their job responsibilities."

He also said they have been working on the automation of the tabulation system.

TEACHER SHORTAGE AND POOR INFRASTRUCTURE

Teacher shortage and poor infrastructure -- shortage of classrooms, teachers and labs -- are common problems, affecting the quality of education in all the seven colleges.

The DU authorities in September last year formed a committee to enquire about the current state of education in the seven colleges. A member of the committee, on condition of anonymity, said Suhrawardy College has the worst situation of all.

"We've found there is a severe shortage of classrooms and teachers at Suhrawardy College. There is a room for a laboratory but it has no equipment. The situation is almost similar at Kabi Nazrul Government College," the committee member said.

Prof Mohsin Kabir, principal of Suhrawardy College, said his college is beset with a crisis of teachers and classrooms. There are 21 classrooms and 107 teachers against 10,000 students, which means the teacher-student ratio is 1:93.

He said there are only three and four teachers at the mathematics and accounting departments respectively. Referring to government rules, there should be at least 14 teachers at each department that offers intermediate, honours and master's courses.

THE AIM OF QUALITY EDUCATION

Educationists believe the DU authorities have more to do to address the issues that have arisen.

"The DU authorities have not taken any significant initiative to resolve the crises and ensure quality education in the colleges," said Siddiqur Rahman, former Professor of Dhaka University's Institute of Education and Research (IER).

As these are tertiary-level educational institutions, the DU authorities should take steps to increase the capacity of teachers at the seven colleges, including arranging training sessions for them, he stressed.

Asked, DU officials said they have already prepared an academic calendar, which will come into force from the next academic year.

Commenting on the challenges the DU teachers are facing, Maksud Kamal said it is true that the seven colleges were affiliated with the DU to improve quality of education but the decision was implemented without any proper planning.

"The number of teachers at the colleges did not increase. If a teacher needs to take a class with 100 or 200 students, it is not possible to have an interactive and quality class," he said.

He said the committee which probed the state of education at the colleges will hold meetings with the higher authorities regarding its findings and press for addressing teacher shortage and infrastructural issues.

This newspaper also reached out to Prof Mohammad Tariq Ahsan, a teacher at the DU's IER, for comments on DU's role in improving the quality of education at the colleges. Echoing the DU pro-VC, he said the affiliation was resumed without any proper planning. The issues regarding teacher shortage and infrastructure should have been resolved before the affiliation was implemented, he noted.

"The DU authorities should take some crucial initiatives to improve the standard of education in the seven affiliated colleges, such as regularly monitoring the academic activities at the colleges and arranging training workshops there for teachers. Moreover, there is a need for an increase in the interaction between DU and the institutions," said Prof Ahsan, also a member of the Curriculum Development and Revision Core Committee (CDRCC).