Engineers Erupt: Education and Employment Equity Demands
Alleging discrimination in recruitment policies, the platform Engineers’ Rights Movement has announced a boycott of classes and examinations, protesting the appointment of diploma holders to ninth-grade engineering posts at the expense of university graduates. General students from BUET and other engineering universities have also joined the movement.
As part of the first phase of their program, classes and examinations will remain suspended on 24, 25, and 26 August, according to organizers.
On the evening of Saturday, 23 August, more than 300 students brought out a protest march from the central Shaheed Minar of BUET. The procession moved through Boxibazar and Dhaka University’s TSC area, circling Intercontinental intersection before concluding at Shahbagh.
Later, at a press conference held in Shahbagh, the students announced their decision to boycott classes and examinations for three days to press home their three-point demand.
At the briefing, students declared: “We will not accept diploma degree holders in engineering posts. The quota system allowing diploma engineers into 10th-grade engineering positions must be abolished. Moreover, no one other than BSc engineers should be permitted to use the title of engineer.”
Their demands include:
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Recruitment to ninth-grade assistant engineer or equivalent posts must be through a competitive examination, with a minimum requirement of a BSc engineering degree. No promotions should be granted via quotas, nor should equivalent posts be created under different titles for promotion purposes.
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Recruitment examinations for 10th-grade technical posts or equivalent sub-assistant engineer positions must be open to both diploma and BSc degree holders.
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Legal action must be taken against individuals using the title “engineer” without a BSc engineering degree. Furthermore, non-accredited BSc engineering programs must be brought under IEB-BAETE accreditation following due process.
Sakibul Haque Lipu, General Secretary of the Engineers’ Rights Movement and a student of Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (RUET), confirmed the matter to the media. He stated: “If our demands are not met, the movement will intensify. For now, it remains limited to the boycott of classes and examinations.”
In a separate statement, general students of BUET said: “Diploma holders are becoming BCS cadre officers through promotion without sitting for any BCS examination, even though they lack the minimum qualification of a bachelor’s degree required for the exam. Entering non-cadre 10th-grade posts in departments such as Public Works, Roads and Highways, Railways, Technical, and Public Health Engineering, they are promoted to BCS cadre status after five years.”
They further added: “Another manifestation of discrimination against BSc engineers is the granting of unlawful seniority. Even if a BSc engineer is recruited earlier in the same year, if a diploma holder is promoted later that year, the diploma holder is given precedence in subsequent promotions. This is clear discrimination and an unjust attempt to subordinate BSc engineers.”
The statement also noted that when job circulars are issued seeking BSc engineers for ninth-grade assistant engineer positions, diploma holders file writ petitions or lawsuits to halt the process. “As a result, the recruitment of BSc engineers is blocked, and institutions are compelled to grant diploma holders promotions in acting or temporary charge,” the students claimed.
