Traffic comes to halt as Polytechnic students block Tejgaon's Saat Rasta
The blockade has caused a long tailback on roads in adjacent areas where many commuters were seen taking to their feet to reach their destinations
Highlights:
- Polytechnic students block Tejgaon's Saat Rasta intersection over six-point demands
- Demonstration began at 10am, causing traffic suspension in both directions
- Students demand reforms in recruitment, academic policies, and higher education opportunities
- Protesters want cancelation of craft instructors' promotion quota and controversial recruitments
- Students call for English as the medium of instruction
- They want technical university, and separate ministry for technical education
Traffic remains suspended at Tejgaon's Saat Rasta intersection after students under the banner of "Karigori Chhatra Andolon, Bangladesh" have blocked the capital's Saat Rasta intersection today (16 April) over the immediate implementation of their six-point demands.
The demonstrators include students from public and private polytechnic institutes, technical schools and colleges, and other institutions under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board.
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The students took position at the intersection around 10am and declared that they would not leave until their demands were addressed.
"The demonstration has stopped vehicular movement in both directions," confirmed Tejgaon Traffic Division's Additional Deputy Commissioner Tania Sultana.
The blockade has caused a long tailback on roads in adjacent areas where many commuters were seen taking to their feet to reach their destinations.
Their demands include reforms in recruitment, academic policy, and higher education opportunities for diploma engineers.
The first demand calls for the cancellation of a 30% promotion quota for craft instructors to the post of junior instructor.
The students also demanded that the High Court declare the promotion of these craft instructors illegal, that their designations be changed, and those involved in related lawsuits be dismissed.
They called for the cancellation of all controversial night-time recruitments of craft instructors made in 2021 and demanded immediate reform of the relevant recruitment policy.
The second demand seeks to abolish open-age admission in the Diploma in Engineering course. Students want a quality, four-year curriculum modelled after developed countries, with a gradual shift to English as the medium of instruction.
In their third demand, the students want the legal requirement to reserve positions in the 10th grade (equivalent to sub-assistant engineer) for diploma engineers. They alleged that despite the mandate, several government, state-owned, autonomous, and semi-autonomous organisations are recruiting diploma graduates to lower posts.
They demanded legal action against such institutions.
The fourth demand is to prohibit the appointment of individuals without technical education backgrounds to key administrative positions in the technical education sector, including director, assistant director, board chairman, deputy secretary, exam controller, and principal.
Students urged immediate recruitment of technically qualified personnel to these posts and also called for job circulars to fill all vacant posts for skilled teachers and lab assistants.
Their fifth demand includes the establishment of a separate "Ministry of Technical and Higher Education" and the formation of a "Technical Education Reform Commission."
The sixth demand is the establishment of a high-quality technical university to ensure higher education opportunities for students graduating from polytechnic and monotechnic institutes.
The students also urged authorities to ensure 100% admission of these graduates in the upcoming academic session through temporary campuses at four under-construction engineering colleges in Narail, Natore, Khagrachhari, and Thakurgaon, under the academic authority of DUET.
Meanwhile, Polytechnic and agriculture diploma students blocked the Dhaka-Chattogram highway, over the implementation of their six and eight-point demands.
At around 11:30am, students from Cumilla Polytechnic Institute, CCN Polytechnic Institute, and Cumilla Agricultural and Technical College occupied the Kotbari Bishwaroad area, halting traffic in both directions while chanting slogans.
