Shah Alam Nur :
Academic activities at public and private universities have been facing turmoil due to the ongoing agitation by the teachers and students across the country.
The public university teachers have been demonstrating for a separate pay scale while the students of private universities, and medical and engineering colleges protesting against the imposition of 7.5 per cent VAT on tuition fees.
The students and guardians have expressed concern over disruption of academic activities and if the movement continued, the students feared, they would face a severe session jam.
From September 8, Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association (FBUTA), a platform of teachers of all the 37 public universities are refraining from work in protest against the “discrepancies” in the Eighth National Pay Scale and demanded a separate pay scale for them.
For the last two months, a number of students from private universities, including North South University, American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB), University of Information Technology and Sciences (UITS), United International University (UIU), BRAC University and Stamford University have been expressing solidarity with the agitation against the imposition of 7.5 per cent VAT on tuition fees.
In the budget for fiscal 2015-16, the government has imposed the 7.5 per cent VAT on tuition fees of private universities. The decision has provoked outrage from students and guardians, and students of several private universities have been demonstrating against it.
The public university teachers four-point demand include formation of a commission to initiate an independent pay scale for public university teachers, immediate revision of the 8th national pay scale, keeping senior professor and senior secretaries on the same pay scale and at an equal level of payment and benefits as enjoyed by the same grade government officials.
FBUTA President Professor Dr Farid Uddin Ahmed said: “The bureaucrats have humiliated the university teachers by giving biased recommendation in the pay scale. We have shown the highest form of decency. As our demand is not met, we the public university teachers are observing agitation.”
He said, “The announced of pay scale has downgraded the salary structure of the university teachers by two grades, which is disgraceful.”
Professor Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan, Chairman of the Television and Film Studies Department at the Dhaka University (DU) said, “Farash Uddin Ahmed [head of the Eighth National Pay and Service Commission] has launched a new conspiracy against the government by allowing discriminatory pay scale.”
Professor Mesbah Kamal of the History Department at DU said, “In India, teachers get higher salary than government secretaries, and here we are being discriminated.”
Students of various universities are staging demonstrations at different places in the city from Wednesday protesting the imposition of VAT on the tuition fees of the private universities, causing disruption to vehicular movement. Earlier on July 4, the NBR issued a notification imposing 7.5 per cent VAT (Value Added Tax) on the tuition fees of the private universities, and medical and engineering colleges.
Itminan Tasneea, a second semester student of Architecture at BRAC University said, “As I am studying the second most expensive subject in the country, a 7.5 per cent VAT in tuition fees will double the expenditure. I need to spend a large amount of money in arranging class projects.” Maisha Maliha Yusuf, a student of Economics at the same university said, “The truth is that many of us come from limited-income families. Everyone cannot secure a berth in the public universities. But higher education cannot be compensated. So, our parents cut many other expenses for bearing the costs of our study.” Sabbir Ahmed, a student of MBA at the North South University, expects the government should subsidize education instead of imposing taxes.
Captain SMH Kabir, father of a North South University (NSU) student, said, “If the government is imposing tax on universities then why are they charging the students.”
He said NSU is one of the most expensive private universities in the country and it has enough money to pay the tax. Imposing VAT on the students will be unfair. BRAC University Vice-Chancellor Prof Syed S Andaleeb said, “It is now a concern for students, parents and the authorities. He said it will be a burden for the students if they have to pay the VAT and also a fall back for the universities because the enrollment of students would go down. Prof M Omar Rahman, VC of the Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB), said, “There is no difference between demographic profiles of public and private universities.”
He said as much as 65 per cent students are enrolled in private universities. IUB gives 100 per cent scholarship to the students with the best results. Other meritorious students also receive different benefits from the university.
