Exam cancellations 'unintended', sacking complaints too: Education adviser

Education adviser Wahid Uddin Mahmud said the decision to cancel the postponed HSC examinations was 'unintentional'. He left the issue of HSC result publication to the experts. Besides, he said, many have been fired for very illogical reasons. Thousands of such complaints have come to me. Source: BDNews.

After the HSC examination which started on June 30 was half over, the agitation-violence was interrupted. The rest of the exams were scheduled to begin on September 11 after several postponements due to violence surrounding the quota reform movement.

But the interim government canceled the rest of the exams when the candidates who were not interested in sitting the exams went on a protest and entered the secretariat on Tuesday.

'The rest of the tests will not take place. The decision on how the results will be given will be announced later,' said Dhaka Education Board Chairman Professor Tapan Kumar Sarkar.

When asked about the education adviser's statement regarding the cancellation of the HSC exam, Wahiduddin Mahmud said, “I don't have anything to decide about the HSC exam, I don't know. The boards will decide.'

Criticism of the decision to cancel the HSC and equivalent exams also came from Sarjis Alam, one of the coordinators of the anti-discrimination student movement. He called this decision 'unreasonable'.

Education advisor Wahiduddin Mahmud said, “Unexpected incident happened yesterday. I haven't even thought about it yet. I can't get it into my head right now.'

He said, 'I will not do anything about it alone. Boards will discuss with experts and decide. Half of the HSC exams are over now, they will decide what to do.'

“Any announcement of this exam should be made by the chairman of the Dhaka Education Board. The declaration he made is the declaration.”

The education adviser also talked about the university admission test for these students at the next stage.

He said, “It is not within our control how the universities will conduct the admission test. But if they want to do more scrutiny for the entrance exam, that opportunity remains. As the rest of the HSC exams are not being conducted.”

The adviser said that in the context of the resignation of vice-chancellors of various public universities after the change of power, efforts are being made to appoint vice-chancellors from teachers who are qualified and acceptable to all.

Out of nearly half a hundred public universities in the country, 42 now have vacancies for vice-chancellors and other important posts. Class exams are also being disrupted in this situation. Similar situation prevails in other private colleges and secondary schools.

Wahiduddin Mahmud said about the appointment of vice-chancellor, 'The advantage that was there before, especially when the party in power, has an organization of teachers. From there, one person was made VC. In our case, we are not getting that opportunity.'

He said, now the information is being collected from the teachers we know in different universities. We are shortlisting teachers who are acceptable to all in terms of academic qualifications, personality and administrative skills. As soon as possible we will recruit in major universities. I am thinking of giving appointment to major universities together.

Many teachers are also being removed from the post of secondary schools. Many are moving away on their own because of their political identity.

In this context, the education advisor said, 'Private colleges and other educational institutions of the country were politicized. The irregularity in the appointment of teachers was a cumulative irregularity. Many have been fired for very unreasonable reasons. Thousands of such complaints have come to me. These cannot be fixed without a policy decision. But the point is that politeness should be maintained in the classroom, force cannot be used, and personal insults cannot be done.'

Referring to various types of chaos in the educational institutions across the country, he said, 'We will identify all types of injustice. Now I have started from the top level of the administration, but I will say that chaos cannot be done. Not everything can be changed overnight.'

Wahiduddin Mahmud also assured that there will be no corruption in the printing of textbooks.

He said, 'The tenders for printing the books which were already invited have been ordered to be cancelled. This time the book printing quality and paper quality will be better. Because, this time there will be no corruption.'

Bangladesh /MP