AUTHORITIES of the public universities were overwhelmed by the growing insolvency of students and their parents during this period because the poverty pushes up the tally of students in need of smartphones. The universities are facing multiple problems with making lists of insolvent students for equipping them with free smartphones to attend online classes during the Coronavirus epidemic.
Communicating students during the suspension of academic activities as well as interferences of teachers and students with political connections have become the other hurdles. After five months of class suspension and two months of online class resumption, the UGC has come up with the idea to support vulnerable students of the public university is sheer negligence, while it is feared that political and bureaucratic corruption chain may grasp the chunk of the fund.
Politically powerful teachers and student leaders are pressurising the department heads for including names of students who already had smartphones. Even some teachers are demanding free laptops for teaching in online classes. UGC on August 6 asked 43 public universities to send lists of poverty-stricken students, who do not have smartphones and need financial support for a phone, to the Commission by August 25. Students of National University, Bangladesh Open University and Islamic Arabic University students were not considered for the offer, which breached the principle of equal treatment of the Constitution and the UGC’s objective of providing access of all students in online classes.
The UGC must ensure the listing process accurate, meant without biased either political, bureaucratic or financial. Besides, the quality of the smartphone is also a concern, as we see government purchase through political supplier is usually substandard. We do not want to see the recurrence of corruption in the government financial aid to the Covid-19 affected people. Besides, there must be a statement from the UGC why the three public university students are deprived of the opportunity.
