Responsibility of Private Universities

President Zillur Rahman on Sunday urged the authorities of private universities to create opportunities of higher education for the children of the country's rural people. Many people are being deprived of the opportunities of higher education, he said while addressing the fifth convocation of BRAC University in the city. Zillur Rahman observed that although children of the well-off section living in urban areas are getting opportunities of higher education in private universities, the children of rural people are getting deprived of. The main reason is that the guardians cannot afford the educational cost of their children in these private universities, he said.
The President's observation is absolutely right. The Cost of higher education in our country is very high at all levels. Specially the cost is unbelievably high at private universities although the tuition fees in the public universities is comparatively low. It is against this backdrop that the President underscored the need for increasing opportunities of higher education to the country's poor students at the private universities.
It may be pointed out that a tendency is common in most of the private universities of the country to maximise profit by running education business in the name of providing higher education to students. Bangladesh is a poor country, but the amount of money the private universities realise from the students as tuition fees and other charges is very high and affordable for only limited number of people. It is simply impossible for the poor guardians of students to bear such huge cost. But the reality shows that the private universities are interested more in earning money than in imparting quality education or helping the poor students get the opportunity there free of cost or at a lesser cost.
It is an open secret that a section of profit mongers are engaged in brisk education business in the country causing serious degradation of the quality of education. While education in public universities are being hampered seriously by session jam, teachers' involvement with private universities and NGO activities etc, a section of private universities are allegedly imparting substandard education and selling certificates. In fact, the state of country's private universities is far from satisfactory as most of the private universities have virtually turned into brisk business centres instead of seats of quality education as they are run mainly on commercial basis. Except a few, most of the private universities do not have even own campus, labs, sufficient class rooms, library facilities, educational equipment and even adequate number of teachers. Academic and other facilities in most of the private universities are inadequate and that gross irregularities are practiced there for commercial gains.
Yet the private universities are realising exuberantly high charges from the students . However, in spite of this, Private universities are an unavoidable reality in the country now as the public universities are unable to accommodate the growing number of students. But they should function as educational institutions and not as commercial establishments. They are also expected to be well equipped in all respect to impart quality education. And, as has been urged by the president the private universities should increase opportunities of higher education to the children of the poor rural people. The private universities should accept this task as a moral and social responsibility.

  Ensuring road safety

The High Court on Sunday issued a suo moto rule asking the government to explain within three weeks why it should not be directed to properly execute the traffic rules by controlling the speed of vehicles and examining their licenses. A division bench comprising Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Borhan Uddin passed the orders after browsing the newspaper reports. The suo moto rule came following newspaper reports on the tragic death of kindergarten school student Hamim Sheikh in a city road crash recently.The High Court also asked the government to submit a report every month to the court on the progress in execution of traffic rules through controlling the speed of vehicles to prevent road accidents.
The rule issued on Sunday is another praiseworthy step of the High Court taken in the public interest. In the past the High Court took similar measure as regards protecting environment and saving rivers, checking extrajudicial killings etc. The Sunday's rule of the court has reassured the people that at least the judiciary is there to act in favour of public interest when the administration fails miserably to safeguard it. What is happening on roads under the nose of police and administration is simply dreadful. The way running vehicles ran over and killed little Hamim and Shimu in the capital city is more than accident. Both of these were virtual murders and these could take place due to the failure of the authorities concerned to strictly enforce the traffic rules.