DU Correspondent
The Dhaka University (DU) yesterday witnessed an ignoble rat race among teachers to get to the newly appointed university officials to pay their admiration and adulation depriving students of their precious classes.
Over 200 teachers rushed in a hustle and bustle towards the Registrar Building to congratulate pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Harun-or Rashid and Treasurer Professor Mizanur Rahman on their appointment.
With flowers, bouquets in their hands and hardly caring about their professional duties, they spent hours to welcome the two, who assumed their offices yesterday after taking over from their predecessors.
As the old senate room was crammed with teachers many were seen waiting outside in the corridor to show off their loyalty to the second and third most important persons of the country’s premier university.
“I have never ever seen such an enthusiasm among teachers,” a teacher told The Daily Star.
With teachers spending hours for the ‘unofficial’ greeting ceremony, students of different faculties under arts, social science and business studies did not find their teachers in the classrooms. They expressed resentments over such negligence from the part of their teachers.
“Which one goes first — attending classes or congratulating officials?” asked a student, who came from Gazipur for his class adding, “Our teachers could congratulate pro-VC after classes or he could notify students that he/she would not be able to take the class.”
Students alleged that many of their teachers left their classes before the classes ended up.
“I had a two-hour class but I curtailed it by one hour to join the ceremony,” said a teacher at the Social Science Faculty expressing disappointment over the growing nasty culture of the university.
Split into two different colours, Awami League-backed Blue Panel and BNP-backed White Panel, the DU teachers are widely blamed for not imparting lessons regularly, delaying completion of examinations and announcement of results.
“This is an utter negligence to the duty,” said Prof Syed Monzurul Islam of the English Department, adding that the main duty of a teacher is taking classes and exams timely rather than anything else.
“What happened today in the name of greeting officials is morally unaccepted,” he said, raising question that why should teachers need to congratulate their colleagues depriving students when they can meet each other everyday?
Prof Monzurul believes a partisan mentality works behind such an attitude.
“Anything ignoring classes is not acceptable to me. Classes should be the first priority for a teacher. This is their moral responsibility to the students,” Vice Chancellor Prof. AAMS Arefin Siddique told The Daily Star.
The teachers are also engaged in teaching at private universities and consultancy at the cost of DU students. This has been going on for years but no effective steps have so far been taken to put an end to such a propensity for negligence to duty.
Teachers are also blamed for overstaying overseas depriving the university students of their valuable classes.
Courtesy: thedailystar.net
