Education left in the lurch

The current political unrest is taking a heavy toll on students as frequent shutdowns are seriously disrupting the academic activities at all levels.
The examinees of the ongoing Secondary School Certificate (SSC) and equivalent exams, in particular, are the worst victims of the situation as their exams are being postponed one after another.
Classes in schools, colleges and universities are also being held up due to the hartals, creating uncertainty over finishing the syllabus within the academic year.
Also hit hard are the graduate and post-graduate students under National University as their examinations have been deferred.
This year's SSC and equivalent exams began on February 3. Exams for five days were put back, delaying the tests in 37 subjects under eight education boards across the country.
Exams scheduled for February 5, 28 and March 3 have been postponed due to nationwide hartals enforced by Jamaat-e-Islami. Another shutdown enforced by some Islamist parties on February 24 forced the authorities to reschedule the exams for that day.
Moreover, the main opposition BNP is enforcing a dawn-to-dusk strike today, resulting in yet another deferral of exams.
Most of the postponed exams have been rescheduled for weekends.
Talking to The Daily Star, examinees, teachers and guardians expressed deep frustration over the recurrent strikes and urged the political parties not to announce any more hartal during public examinations.
"I am already dispirited by recurrent hartals. I had good preparations for one subject, but that exam was postponed and I had to apply full concentration on another subject," said Anik Rahman Oni, an SSC examinee of Badda area in the capital.
Student of Lalmatia Mahila College, Naima Sultana said, "Once an examination is postponed, we lose our interest in that subject as we are compelled to make preparations again."
Mahfuzur Rahman, whose daughter is taking the SSC exams from Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, said, "We are gravely concerned about the situation. If it goes on like this, we don't know when the exams will be over and the results will be published."
Political parties should consider the students' plight before announcing any such programme as the students are held hostage to these programmes, he observed.
Manju Ara Begum, acting principal of Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, said hartals make it difficult for educational institutions to complete the syllabus within the academic year.
"It will not be possible to publish the results in time if the examinations are delayed frequently," she added.
Dhaka Education Board will not be able to finish the exams and distribute the answer sheets among the examiners as per schedule.
Preferring anonymity, a senior official of the board said, "We had published the results of SSC and HSC exams within 60 days of the completion of exams. But this time around, it would be tough to maintain the time frame."
The examinees under the National University (NU) faced a similar ordeal.
Already, several examinations have been postponed due to shutdowns. If the situation goes on, it might see the university plunge into a severe session jam, feared NU officials.
Currently, examinations in different courses of honours 2nd year, and masters are going on.
"We need to hold exams round the year and if an examination is postponed, it affects the entire academic calendar of the university. We already have session jam in the university and if the exams are not finished in due time, it would definitely worsen the situation," said Badruzzaman, controller of examinations at NU.