Polytechnic students announce class boycott; will hold long march to Dhaka if demands not met within 48 hours
The rally in Dhaka, which began after 11am, drew students from nearly 20 different government and private polytechnic institutions across the capital
Polytechnic students, under the platform "Karigori Chhatro Andolon", have announced that they will boycott classes until their six-point charter of demands, including cancellation of a 30% promotion quota for craft instructors to the post of junior instructor, is met.
From a rally in front of the Dhaka Women's Polytechnic Institute in the capital's Sher-e-Bangla Nagar area today (20 April), they also announced a long march towards Dhaka from all districts if the demands are not met within 48 hours.
The students held the rally to press for their demands and to protest the recent attack on polytechnic students in Cumilla.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The mass rally, which began after 11am, drew students from nearly 20 different government and private polytechnic institutions across the capital.
Students gathered with placards and formed small processions before assembling in front of the Women's Polytechnic Institute, chanting slogans in support of their demands.
Their other demands include cancellation of the "controversial appointment" of craft instructors in 2021; abolishment of open-age admission in the Diploma in Engineering course; legal requirement to reserve positions in the 10th grade (equivalent to sub-assistant engineer) for diploma engineers; and prohibition of appointments of those without technical educational backgrounds.
The students also want a separate "Ministry of Technical and Higher Education", the formation of a "Technical Education Reform Commission", and the establishment of a high-quality technical university.
The students demanded that their movement be logical and justified. They said they do not want to create traffic congestion by staying on the streets, but claim the government has forced them to take this step.
The students warned they would no longer wait and threatened to intensify their movement with tougher programmes if their demands are not met soon.
"The movement we've brought to the streets today isn't new. We've been conducting peaceful protests for the past eight months. Whenever the administration called us, we went. They arranged dramatic meetings to calm us," said Mahiyan Islam, co-coordinator of Karigori Chhatro Andolon and a student at Dhaka Polytechnic Institute.
"We've been protesting with the six demands since last September. We've had several meetings with government officials who all acknowledged and promised to meet our demands. But none of them have implemented anything. We will continue our movement until our demands are met," he added.
Meanwhile, as part of the nationwide peaceful demonstrations demanding the fulfilment of six key demands, students of Faridpur Polytechnic Institute held a peaceful rally this morning (20 April) at around 11am on the institute's Shaheed Minar premises.
Students from Faridpur National Polytechnic Institute and Faridpur Grassroot Polytechnic Institute also joined the rally in solidarity.
During the demonstration, the students strongly called for the immediate implementation of their six-point demands.
"Diploma engineers are a vital pillar in nation-building. We will not accept being undermined like this. Our demands must be fulfilled without delay," said one of the students at the rally.
In a media statement issued last night (19 April), the Karigori Chhatro Andolon said the purpose of today's programme is to present the students' logical demands and issues without causing public inconvenience.
Zubayer Patwari, a representative of the movement, said, "Although we initially decided to hold grand rallies in each district on 20 April, we have revised the programme name. We are now calling it a rally."
"We will announce a nationwide event later, termed a grand rally," he added.
Yesterday, polytechnic students observed demonstrations -- titled "Rise in Red" -- at the polytechnic institutes in Dhaka and different districts, during which they covered the nameplates of their institutions with red cloths.
On Friday (18 April), students also held protest marches wearing burial shrouds around the country, while on Thursday (17 April), they held torch processions.
