Teachers’ part-time job hampers public univ education: UGC

Public university teachers taking up part-time teaching in private universities and consultancy job in organisations in an uncontrolled manner largely hampers academic activities in the universities, the University Grants Commission has said.

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It is a matter of concern that some public university teachers are working part-time with private universities in an uncontrolled and unplanned manner, the commission said in its annual report for 2010 that was handed over to te president, Zillur Rahman, on Sunday.

The report said that such involvement of teachers should be at a logical and acceptable level and there should be guidelines on part-time teaching and consultancy job for public university teachers.

The report also said that about 23 per cent of the teachers at public universities remain absent from duties which hamper academic activities in their universities. Only 44 per cent of the teachers have PhD or other higher degrees, the report said putting low-quality education down to such situations.

In the report, the commission observed that the qualification of graduates of some universities, especially some private universities, was questionable. It said that although higher education has been expanded, the quality of education could not be ensured.

The report said that the commission observed that in the past years, the recruitment of some teachers and employees in universities was faulty adding that there should be accountability of recruitment in universities.

‘These all are unacceptable. Teaching at public universities is a full-time job. A teacher has many activities with students along with teaching,’ Dhaka University professor emeritus Serajul Islam Choudhury said.

He said that the quality of public universities was suffering and the authorities
should concerned look into the matter.

Former Dhaka University vice-chancellor Maniruzzaman Miah said that there should be guidelines on teacher’s part-time teaching at private universities and consultancy job with private farms.

‘A teacher should not do anything that could hamper academic activities of the main university,’ he said.

The commission’s chair AK Azad Chowdhury said that the number of permanent teacher at private universities was not satisfactory and the teachers of public universities needed to teach at private universities. ‘Private universities will have to overcome the limitations.’

He said that it was difficult to ensure quality education with the budget the higher education sectors is given. ‘The budget needs to be increased to ensure quality education.’

The report also said that the teacher-student ratio at public universities was not satisfactory and that is a barrier to quality education. In 2010, the teacher-student ratio was 1:19 in public universities.

It also said that the commission observed that the 1973 university orders and other laws should be reformed as needed.

It said that students and their guardians were suffering because of session jams in some public universities and urged the authorities to take action in this regard.
The commission, in the report, also expressed its disappointment as Bangladeshi universities have no position in international and regional ratings.

It recommended that a university teachers’ training academy should be set up to enhance the skills of the teachers.

It also said that the commission should be upgraded to ‘higher education commission or universities’ commission of Bangladesh’ and its human resources should be increased.

It said that there should be a separate salary structure for university teachers to attract talented students to teaching.