Polytechnic Protest Peaks: Students Issue 48-Hour Ultimatum to Government

Polytechnic students across the country staged a major demonstration on Sunday (April 20), demanding the fulfillment of their six-point charter and protesting the recent attack on students in Cumilla. The grand rally began around 12:00 PM on the newly built road in front of the Women’s Polytechnic Institute in Agargaon, Dhaka, under the banner of the Technical Students’ Movement Bangladesh.

During the event, demonstrators issued a 48-hour ultimatum to the government to meet their demands. Protesters carried placards bearing slogans such as “Ami ke tumi ke, Diploma Engineer,” “Tero-er hathiyar, gorje uthho arekbar,” “Desh gôrâr hathiyar, Diploma Engineer,” “Ek hao, ek hao, Polytechnic ek hao,” “Mama theke Master, Mama barir abdar,” and “BUET jodi anti hoy, Diplomara jabe koi,” creating an electrifying atmosphere around the venue.

Many students were seen waving the national and Palestinian flags, while the majority of the female students wore their institutional uniforms and stood at the front of the gathering. Speakers took their place under the Bot-tola (banyan tree) square. After nearly 40 minutes of chanting, central representative Mahmud Masfiq Islam addressed the gathering, saying: “We, the Technical Students’ Movement Bangladesh, have been agitating for our six-point demands for the past eight months. Regrettably, we have received no satisfactory response from the government. Today, divisional and district-level grand rallies are being held across the country. If our demands are not fulfilled, we will take to the streets nationwide. This is not only a student movement but a fight for a Bangladesh free from discrimination. We have not forgotten the movements of 1987 and 2013. This is a movement of students, teachers, and professional engineers alike.”

Another central representative, Mizanur Rahman, declared, “If there is no official announcement accepting our demands within 48 hours, students from all polytechnic institutes across the country will observe a ‘Long March to Dhaka’ program.”

Earlier in the morning, students from various government and private polytechnic institutes under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board began gathering in front of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute. Around 11:00 AM, they marched in a procession to the Women’s Polytechnic Institute in Agargaon, chanting slogans including “BUET jodi anti hoy, Diplomara jabe koi" (If BUET stands against us, where can we go then?)

The Six-Point Charter of Demands Includes:

1. Cancel the High Court verdict that allowed illegal promotions of craft instructors to junior instructor positions. Revoke all appointments made in 2021 under controversial recruitment rules and permanently remove those involved in the disputed process. Additionally, change the title “Craft Instructor” and revise the associated recruitment rules.

2. Cancel the provision allowing admission into the Diploma in Engineering program at any age. Ensure a four-year, globally aligned curriculum with eventual transition to English-medium academic instruction.

3. Enforce legal action against public, autonomous, and state-run institutions that fail to appoint Diploma Engineers to the 10th-grade Sub-Assistant Engineer or equivalent positions, as per existing reservations for four-year Diploma and Monotechnology (Surveying) graduates.

4. Legally prohibit non-technical personnel from being appointed to administrative posts such as Director, Assistant Director, Board Chairman, Deputy Secretary, Controller of Examinations, and Principals within the technical education sector. Ensure immediate recruitment of technically qualified personnel for these roles and issue recruitment notices to fill all vacant teaching and lab assistant positions.

5. Address discrimination and stagnation in technical education by establishing an independent “Ministry of Technical and Higher Education,” along with a Technical Education Reform Commission to create a more skilled workforce.

6. Establish a full-fledged technical university to facilitate higher education for Polytechnic and Monotechnic graduates. Ensure that the four under-construction engineering colleges (in Narail, Natore, Khagrachari, and Thakurgaon) begin academic operations under DUET, with temporary campuses, from the upcoming academic session, and guarantee 100% admission opportunities for eligible diploma graduates.