How mobocracy ruled the education sector during Yunus' government
Whether the new government can prevent mob culture from becoming embedded in its education system may determine whether classrooms remain sites of learning or battlegrounds of power, and whether such traumatising experiences would return again
On 13 August 2024, Professor Dr Amina Abedin, then principal of Rajshahi Government City College, was in her office when a group forced its way inside.
"They entered with a hand microphone and began shouting abusive language at me," she recalls. "They called me a collaborator of fascism and demanded that I resign."
When her husband and children arrived after hearing of the situation, they too were assaulted. "My husband and children were beaten. I was physically humiliated," she says. "No matter how much I told them I could not resign without a government order, they forced me to sign a resignation letter written on blank paper."
She was expelled from campus that afternoon and instructed later to work from home. Fifteen days passed before she could return. Even now, she says, the trauma lingers.
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"The level of noise in my office that day was so intense that for a long time I could not tolerate the sound of a microphone. When I remember it, I shudder."
In Bogura's Dupchanchia upazila, secondary school teacher Shah Alam describes a similar atmosphere of fear after the 5 August political transition.
"Teachers were not at ease," he says. "If you try to correct students, they create mobs. Earlier we could discipline them. Now we do not even raise our voices."
He adds that some teachers have quietly endured irregularities out of fear. "At any moment, a mob could form."
Principal Md Robiul Islam of Bogura Adarsha College says the fear spread rapidly across institutions. "When we heard teachers were being harassed in nearby schools, we felt immense mental pressure. There was panic in many institutions."
At Paharpur GM High School in Naogaon, Headmaster Aktaruzzaman recalls receiving threatening calls. "It was intense pressure. But local guardians stood by me. After the new government came, the fear of mobs has reduced."
These are not isolated episodes. They are fragments of a larger pattern: since the July Uprising and the fall of the previous government, Bangladesh's education sector has experienced waves of intimidation, forced resignations, public ultimatums, and, in some cases, physical assault.
Mob pressure as governance
The turmoil was not confined to administrative offices.
At Rajshahi University, the student union's general secretary, Salahuddin Ammar, publicly issued ultimatums demanding the resignation of deans allegedly aligned with the previous government, warning of "consequences" if they remained in office.
At the University of Chittagong, Assistant Professor Hasan Mohammad was reportedly chased from an admission examination center and confined in the proctor's office by student leaders from CUCSU, who searched his phone while he remained inside.
Meanwhile, at the national level, mob pressure influenced academic policy itself.
In 2024 Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations were ultimately cancelled after a group of students entered the Secretariat and staged demonstrations demanding that the remaining exams be scrapped.
In 2024, Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) examinations were ultimately cancelled after a group of students entered the Secretariat and staged demonstrations demanding that the remaining exams be scrapped.
The ministry announced the cancellation of six pending written examinations and practical tests affecting roughly 1.4 million candidates. The decision was justified on grounds of "unavoidable circumstances".
Back then, educationists and experts warned that declaring results without completing the full examination cycle could have long-term academic consequences — from university admissions to overseas applications and employment prospects. And it would create a ripple effect if the government gave in to a mob's demand.
The episode marked a turning point where academic decisions appeared vulnerable not only to political shifts but also to direct street pressure.
A system already fragile
For many analysts, the mob phenomenon did not emerge in a vacuum. It exploited a system already weakened by politicisation and underinvestment.
Dr Samina Luthfa, Professor of Sociology at the University of Dhaka, argues that chronic neglect has hollowed out institutional authority.
"Bangladesh invests the least in education in South Asia," she says. "If education consistently receives the smallest share of the GDP or the national budget, meaningful development cannot be expected."
In such an environment, when political instability erupts, institutions lack the resilience to withstand external pressure. And due to a lack of reform, the crisis persisted.
She said, "After 5 August, there was extensive discussion about reforms in various sectors. Yet no education reform commission was formed. We became preoccupied with so-called 'big issues', overlooking education, which is in fact one of the most fundamental sectors. The problems within education are deeply interconnected with broader governance failures. The reality is simple: our education system is not functioning properly, and no serious attempt at reform has been made."
Dr M Nazmul Haq, professor at the Institute of Education and Research, University of Dhaka, sees politicisation as a long-standing structural flaw.
He said, "Education has always been a neglected sector—not just now, but consistently. One possible reason is political: those in power may not want citizens to be genuinely well educated, because an educated population can become politically inconvenient. For this and other reasons, education is repeatedly sidelined. We have seen education commissions formed, only for another to appear months later, and then nothing for years."
When governance is weakened by political interference, he implies, mob pressure becomes easier to exert, as Dr Samina Luthfa said, "Here, education has been treated as a partisan tool while simultaneously underinvesting in it. And now it will have disastrous consequences unless governance is ensured."
The new government's response
The newly appointed Education Minister A N M Ehsanul Haque Milan has pledged to restore order and discipline. He has identified three immediate priorities: creating a conducive environment to bring students back to classrooms, reviewing and refining the national curriculum, and modernising technical education. The first step shows his commitment not to allow further mobs at classrooms.
Referring to past exam cancellations and autopass decisions, he stated, "Decisions such as cancelling examinations or granting autopass were taken in special situations. But those were never desirable or sustainable solutions."
He has also issued a firm warning to teachers engaged in political activism, "You cannot teach in the classroom and then leave it empty to join street protests. If there are demands, they will be addressed through dialogue. But abandoning classrooms is not acceptable."
The State Minister Bobby Hajjaj has also framed the broader philosophy more pointedly, "We will not do politics with education; we will build the state through education."
Can order be restored?
The immediate reports from districts suggest that overt mob intimidation has subsided since the new government took office. But restoring stability will require more than suppressing visible unrest.
Experts like educationist and social activist Dr Rasheda K. Chowdhury argue that institutional authority must be reinforced through legal protection for educators against intimidation, clear disciplinary frameworks for campus misconduct, depoliticised education administration, budgetary prioritisation of teacher remuneration and curriculum stability insulated from partisan change.
She said, "Stability must return to the education sector. Without it, we risk deepening the setbacks we were already facing in terms of educational quality, skills development, teacher capacity, student performance, and ultimately employment outcomes. Even before the recent unrest, systemic weaknesses were eroding our competitiveness and harming our long-term prospects."
She added, "At this moment, restoring order and institutional normalcy in educational institutions is not merely desirable—it is imperative. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have struggled to recover the learning losses inflicted during prolonged school closures. We had not yet managed to compensate for that damage. We hope under new government, stability will return, because if the current instability is not addressed decisively, the losses could escalate to a far more severe and potentially irreversible level."
For observers, mob incidents at the education sector may be merely concerning statistics. But for teachers like Dr Abedin, it is a haunting memory.
"When I remember that day," she says quietly, "I still shudder. The level of noise and shouting in my office that day was so intense that for a long time I could not tolerate the sound of a microphone. Even now, recalling those words traumatises me. I do not want to remember them."
Whether the new government can prevent mob culture from becoming embedded in its education system may determine whether classrooms remain sites of learning or battlegrounds of power and whether such traumatising experiences would return again.
