Students of the 2021-22 session of the law department at Cumilla University (CU) have held a sit-in in protest at their semester final examinations not being held on time and at delays in publishing results. They locked the department and raised various demands and grievances.
The students held the sit-in in front of the university’s law and engineering faculty on Tuesday (June 23), and later submitted their demands and grievances to the pro-vice-chancellor in writing.
The students alleged that the department had a session jam of about eight months. Exam routines were often published the night before, courses were completed without enough classes being held, online classes were held for no reason, and in-course results were not published, they said.
They also alleged that, because of an internal conflict among teachers, multiple teachers were taking the same course, prolonging the semester. The absence of any clear academic roadmap, delays in publishing results, classes not being held on time, and the repeated announcement and postponement of exam dates were all causing the students to suffer, they said. The students further alleged that multiple exams were sometimes held on the same day, and that when they raised demands they faced intimidation, including threats of resignation, of withholding certificates and of legal action.
The students’ demands included: publishing in-course results within 24 hours; setting a schedule to complete the remaining two semesters within seven months; publishing a full academic roadmap for in-course and final exams within 48 hours; publishing results within eight weeks of the end of an exam; keeping regular classes running with guest teachers if there was a teacher shortage, with a written commitment; and ensuring that no student’s results or academic standing were harmed because of the protest.
A 2021-22 law student, Sanjida Selim Chhoa, said: ‘We were told the semester finals would be held a week after the in-course exams. By that count, our finals were due tomorrow, June 24. But today they are saying we have to retake the first midterm of one course. We are already behind the other departments, and they are only pushing our semester further back.’
The acting head of the department, assistant professor Sadia Tabassum, said the head of department had changed several times in recent months. With some teachers on leave, the results of the courses they taught had been delayed, leaving students in a session jam of several months, she said. The whole department now had only five teachers, she said, creating extra pressure and making it difficult to complete departmental work on time; the administration had long been informed about the teacher shortage but no new teachers had yet been appointed.
On the students’ demands, she said the pro-vice-chancellor had come to the department and heard them, that exams would begin from next Monday, and that the academic roadmap for the next two semesters would be published by the following day.
The pro-vice-chancellor, Professor Dr Masuda Kamal, said: ‘I have heard the students’ demands. Those that can be resolved immediately will be addressed quickly, and the rest will be taken up through a meeting with the department’s teachers and the controller of examinations.’
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report