Sylhet Engineering College teachers confined for second day as students protest

Teachers of Sylhet Engineering College have remained confined inside the institution's administrative building for a second consecutive day as students continue their movement demanding separation from the Directorate of Technical Education and affiliation with Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST).

During a visit to the campus this afternoon (28 September), students were seen blocking the main entrance to the administrative building and chanting slogans.

The gate was locked, leaving the acting principal, 14 teachers and six to seven other officers and employees inside. The teachers said they had remained confined to the building since yesterday afternoon (27 September).

The students began the protest around 11am today by locking the administrative building and confining several teachers.

As of 4:30pm, a group of protesting students had gone to the Deputy Commissioner's Office for a meeting with Deputy Commissioner Abdullah Al Mamun. Sylhet City Corporation Administrator Abdul Qayyum Chowdhury was also attending the meeting.

The students said the college's affiliation with the Directorate of Technical Education was undermining the distinctiveness and professional standing of their BSc in Engineering degrees.

They alleged that despite repeated demands and protests, no satisfactory progress had been made towards separating the college from the directorate, creating uncertainty over their academic future.

They said all classes, examinations, laboratory work and academic and administrative activities would remain suspended indefinitely until the Education Ministry issued a notification separating the college from the directorate and affiliating it with SUST.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry's Technical and Madrasah Education Division issued a notification on 27 September regarding changes to the acting principal's responsibilities.

According to the notification, Associate Professor Md Asaduzzaman, who had been serving as acting principal, was transferred to Faridpur Engineering College, while Associate Professor Md Sahid Iqbal of Mymensingh Engineering College was appointed as acting principal of Sylhet Engineering College.

Deputy Secretary Sazzad Hossain signed the notification, which instructed both officials to join their new workplaces by 28 September.

However, a student leading the movement, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the students had rejected the transfer order.

The student said they would not allow the transferred principal to leave the campus or the newly appointed acting principal to enter until their demands were met. The entire campus would remain shut until then, the student added.

Assistant Professor Md Khalilur Rahman, who was among those confined inside the administrative building, said the demands could only be resolved by higher authorities.

"The issue cannot be resolved by us without intervention from the higher authorities. Yet they have kept us confined. We have been inside the building for two days," he said.

Established in 2007, Sylhet Engineering College offers undergraduate engineering programmes in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Civil Engineering, and Computer Science and Engineering. Around 1,000 students are enrolled across five batches in the three departments.