CUET Shows Red-Card: Call for Clear-Cut Careers
As part of the ongoing nationwide Engineering Rights Movement, students of Chattogram University of Engineering & Technology (CUET) staged a protest, showing “red cards” against diploma holders whom they blame for long-standing inequities in the engineering profession.
Gathering in front of the university’s Student-Teacher Auditorium on Monday afternoon, the students raised slogans including, “In My Golden Bengal, Discrimination Has No Place”, “Quota or Merit? Merit, Merit”, and “Discrimination in the Name of Quota, Won’t Work, Won’t Work”.
Students explained that diploma holders have historically blocked BSc degree engineers from promotions and appointments. “In government service, Grade-10 positions are almost exclusively reserved for diploma holders, while 33 percent quota exists for promotions in Grade-9 posts,” the students said. “Even after the July uprising, such unfair quotas in employment betray the blood of our martyrs.”
Earlier, on 31 August, CUET students had organized marches to protest attacks on students at Chattogram University (CU) and Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) by outsiders. They also held a “Meet the Justice” program against harassment of engineers and attempts to suppress the Engineering Rights Movement.
Atfan Bin Noor, a fourth-year Computer Science and Engineering student, said, “We have seen attacks on our brothers during the legitimate engineering protests in Dhaka. Outrageous assaults have also occurred against students at CU and BAU. Yet law enforcement and administrative authorities have taken no effective measures. This points to the failure of the interim government. We demand that the perpetrators be identified and brought under the law promptly.”
Mahi Al Wahid, a final-year Mechanical Engineering student, added, “Those who carried out such brutal attacks on our brothers and sisters must be arrested and punished immediately. We want the disorder in the country to be resolved swiftly, and stability to return.”
For several months, engineering students from BUET, CUET, KUET, and RUET have been protesting against alleged discriminatory practices in government employment. Their demands include: introducing entrance exams for Grade-9 Assistant Engineer or equivalent posts, opening technical Grade-10 Sub-Assistant Engineer positions to all candidates, and legally restricting the engineer title solely to BSc degree holders through gazetted law.
