Four political parties — Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Socialist Party of Bangladesh (SPB), Gano Forum and Nagarik Oikya — on Sunday slammed the government for its move to commercialise education in the country’s public universities. Addressing a human chain, leaders of the four political parties observed that the attempts to increase tuition fees and introduce high-cost evening programmes in several public universities over the last few years are nothing but a plot to commercialise higher education, which will lead to a greater social discrimination. The human chain was jointly organised by the four political parties in front of the Jatiya Press Club in protest against the recent attacks by Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) activists on peaceful demonstrations of Rajshahi University (RU) students as they were agitating against the increases in tuition fees and the scheme to launch commercial evening courses at the RU. About 100 students were injured as the ruling party-backed BCL activists and the police jointly swooped on the students on February 2 on the RU campus. Addressing the human chain, CPB leader Ruhin Hossain Prince demanded that the attackers be arrested and brought to justice immediately. He also demanded that the false cases against the organisers of the peaceful agitation be withdrawn. SPB general secretary Kholiquzzaman said the increase in tuition fees and introduction of high-cost evening courses in public universities are nothing but steps to commercialise higher education at the risk of nourishing the existing social discrimination. “The huge demonstration by RU students against the proposed increase in fees shows is nothing unique. Students in almost all the public universities had staged such demonstrations against similar attempts in the past,” he said. “If the government continues to pursue the plan to commercialise higher education, the students as well as other sections of society will continue to protest. We call upon people to stand against the commercialisation to ensure easy access to education for all sections of society,” he said. The human chain was also addressed by Nagarik Oikya convener Mahmudur Rahman Manna and Gano Forum acting general secretary Shafiullah. – UNB
