All students of Mosleh Uddin Bhuiyan College in Raipura, Narsingdi, failed the HSC examination this year. Because of the poor results and low number of students, a decision was taken to grow vegetables on the college field, and the field was ploughed with a tractor. But when the matter came up in the media, the college authorities backed away from the vegetable garden plan. Local people are angry about the standard of education.

On a recent visit to the Daulatkandi area of the upazila, there were no students walking on the college field, which was being ploughed by a tractor. One or two students sat in some rooms of the building while the rest were empty. Some teachers were chatting, and an abandoned tin-shed building lay beside the neatly decorated Shaheed Minar.

According to local sources, the college was set up on three bighas of land in 2014 and once earned local people's trust for good education. But over the past few years, irregular teaching, absent teachers and students, and weak administration have steadily lowered the standard, and this year's results reflect that decline.

Several parents and local people said angrily that if their children's talents do not develop even after they are admitted to college, students will lose heart. They said drug users gather in the college building in the afternoons, asking whether that was an environment for learning, and said the college authorities are not accountable to anyone.

Some students, who did not want to be named, said the teachers came regularly but those examinees had been irregular. They said they were trying to study well and restore the college's reputation.

According to people involved in local education, restoring academic discipline at the college, making teachers accountable and ensuring regular student attendance could prevent a repeat of this failure next year.

The college's founder and acting principal, freedom fighter Mosleh Uddin Bhuiyan, said he had founded the college on his own initiative in 2014 to improve education in a poor area. Last year 20 students sat the examination and all passed. This time the result was due to students not attending classes regularly, he said, adding that student numbers have been falling mainly since the coronavirus pandemic.

On the ploughing of the college field, he said one of his uncles had decided to make a vegetable plot on one side of the field, and that decision was later cancelled.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.