NSTU Students Protest Plan to Increase Viva Marks

Noakhali, September 8, Tuesday: Students of Noakhali Science and Technology University (NSTU) staged a protest march on Tuesday night against a government initiative to reduce marks allocated to the written component of government recruitment examinations while increasing the marks assigned to viva voce examinations.

Activists of the university units of Bangladesh Islami Chhatra Shibir and Chhatra Shakti also joined the demonstration in solidarity with the students.

The protesters alleged that increasing the weight of viva examinations while reducing written-test marks could create greater opportunities for political influence, lobbying, favouritism and corruption in government recruitment.

They argued that written examinations should retain a stronger role in ensuring merit-based recruitment, while the marks allocated to oral examinations should remain limited.

The protest march began at 11pm Tuesday from the Shaheed Minar premises on the NSTU campus. The procession passed through key roads on the campus before returning to the Shaheed Minar, where the protesters held a brief rally.

The students chanted slogans including “My golden Bengal, no place for discrimination,” “No place for lobbying,” “If you need alms, beg, but free the meritorious,” “Weapon of ’24, roar once again,” “Action, action, direct action,” “The committee went that way, the viva will go that way,” “NSTU action, direct action,” “Direct action against lobbying,” and “Quota or merit—merit, merit.”

Addressing the rally, Jihadul Islam Rafi, a 19th-batch student of the Department of Oceanography, said, “Even after demonstrating merit in written examinations in the past, many candidates have faced discrimination in viva examinations because of their political identity, ideology or criticism of the government. Therefore, increasing the marks for viva examinations could create greater scope for politicisation and irregularities in recruitment.”

Expressing solidarity with the movement, Abdur Rahman, secretary of the NSTU unit of Chhatra Shibir, said, “In August, when we carried out the July movement, our heartfelt demand, our main demand, was to establish a discrimination-free society. But we are observing that the government has been trying since yesterday to issue a gazette notification on this matter. It proposes increasing viva marks in recruitment for Grade 11 to Grade 20 jobs, citing the issue of cheating in recruitment examinations.”

Shahidul Islam, convener of NSTU Chhatra Shakti, said, “Instead of the quota system, attempts are now being made to create an opportunity through viva examinations to favour preferred individuals or facilitate politicisation without properly assessing qualifications. We believe that increasing viva marks because the government has failed to prevent cheating is a manifestation of the government’s failure.”

It may be noted that an initiative has been taken to amend the recruitment rules for government jobs in Grades 11 to 20, including a significant increase in marks allocated to viva examinations and a reduction in the pass mark for written examinations.

Earlier on Tuesday, the government said the decision to increase viva marks was aimed at ensuring a skilled and qualified administrative workforce.
//DBTech/Samia Hossen Munia/MIS/FOEH//