Violent politics bad for education

Students during recess at a private university campus

Over the last few years number of private universities as well as the number of students enrolled in these universities have increased significantly. Most public universities face disruptions in the academic calendar due to unscheduled closure resulting from political agitations, some of which lead to violence with use of firearms. As a consequence, academic activities are seriously disrupted, leading to session jams. However, in comparison most private universities have not faced such problems yet. The relatively better performing private universities have been striving over the years to maintain the academic calendar in spite of disruptions due to hartals, transport strikes and non-cooperation movements.
Usually extra classes are held at the earliest opportunity to make up the classes which could not be held as per schedule. For example, if there is a one-day hartal, classes are held on the following Saturday, which, for most universities is a weekly holiday. Similarly, if hartals are observed on two days in a particular week, make up classes are held on the following Friday and Saturday. However, with the increase in frequency as well as duration of these disruptions, it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain the schedule. The students as well as the teachers have to face a lot of uncertainties and mental stress in trying to cope with these disruptions.
The current political situation in Bangladesh has adversely affected the academic environment in almost all universities –both public and private. As members of the academia in Bangladesh we are concerned about the future of our education. Strikes are being called by different political parties amidst the Secondary and Higher Secondary examinations. When the political parties talk about the progress and the prosperity of our nation, they seem to forget their commitment towards this land when it comes to calling of hartals or other programs that obstruct normal lifestyle and movement of the public. Students are most affected because they are among the most vulnerable groups affected by the hartals.
During hartals, guardians are worried about the safety of their children or wards; they do not send their children or wards to schools, colleges or universities. Even if the educational institutes in urban areas decide to keep it open, classes taken are not effective due to the small number of students participating in the classes. On the other hand the authorities of these institutions are in no position to declare the schools closed or cannot force the students to attend classes during hartals. The violent nature of the activities that the protesters carry on to make their hartals successful costs lives as we have seen in the recent past. No one wants to expose himself to the inherent risk and become a victim of these casualties.
In the recent past, picture of students getting severely injured after explosion have made us disturbed in the same manner as it did to the mass people. In fact, being academicians, this news touches our heart more than others and makes us more anxious about our students.
Apart from this security issue, rescheduling of classes become additional hassle of these institutions running on semester system have to make sure that semesters are completed as scheduled. Otherwise the whole system would be pushed back for the students who will suffer for not being able to graduate on time. It is a big blow for a country like us where we have started to see the early morning light of better educational standard and academic practices.
Policy makers surely can take meaningful steps to stop these violent acts. The common people want to live their regular lives peacefully. Political parties can come to an agreement that none will stage programs that puts the lives of the common people at risk. All political parties talk about good education, quality education, and they advise students to become good citizens in their speeches in any programs they attend. Yet, time and again they forget that, to be good students, one need to have uninterrupted access to educational amenities. Calling strikes or stopping normal public lives do not promote good education.
They all hope that the concerned bodies will take into account the far reaching effects of violent activities and remodel their way of thinking. A continuation of the present culture of hartals and other forms of protests which disrupt educational activities would surely lead to long term adverse impact on the whole education system. The number of students opting to go to the other countries for higher education even at undergraduate is likely to increase significantly.

The writer is Vice Chancellor, University of Asia Pacific.