Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology teachers, on strike for 22nd consecutive days on Sunday, told New Age that they would not call off their protests seeking resignation of the vice-chancellor and the pro-vice-chancellor although they knew that students were suffering as no classes were being held.
‘The students will not face trouble as we can take make-up classes at the weekends or during holidays,’ The BUET Teachers’ Association general secretary, Md Ashraful Islam, said.
He said, ‘We expect that the prime minister will meet our demands so that the students do not suffer.’
The striking teachers are discussing the campus
situation with higher authorities.
A number of teachers also said that they were thinking of ‘an alternative movement’ against the corruption in the university administration in view of sufferings of the students.
But they would not call off their protests pushing for the resignation of the vice-chancellor SM Nazrul Islam and the pro-vice-chancellor Md Habibur Rahman because of their ‘involvement in corruption,’ the teachers said.
‘We have not yet decided our next course of action but have thought of an alternative way to push four our demands,’ one of the striking teachers said.
He talked of the silent procession they held on the campus on Saturday as a way of protests.
Asked about the sufferings of the students, the teachers said that the students were not suffering so much as their strike coincided with the general strike the opposition alliance was enforcing and because of public holidays.
The vice-chancellor, meanwhile, told New Age that the teachers had alleged irregularities in administration. ‘But why should the students suffer?’
Asked about the allegations levelled against them the vice-chancellor said that the allegations were ‘illogical and baseless.’
‘I have not committed any mistake. My resignation will, rather, be a mistake,’’ he added.