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Horrible cheating

July 21, 2007 00:00:00


A decent young man, who has just crossed his adolescence, sat beside me on board a public transport in Dhaka the other day. He was carrying a thick black bag. He kept it on his lap. He said he is a third year English honours student of a private university, which is located in the city's Sukrabad area.
On query, he said his father is dead and his mother works for a small bank as one if its assistant general managers. Being a father, I immediately belt affectionate towards him. We started talking on serious matters. Our short discussion brought out some agonising stories about the standard of the particular university.
I asked him if he could tell me the names of some English poets. He named most of the best-known English poets in one-go. I then asked him if he could tell me in Bengali the meaning of "He hath disgraced me". He frankly said he could not. I then asked him what could be the meaning of the sentence "Twilight and evening bell and a clear call for me". He again humbly said he could not make out its meaning.
I then asked him to translate two Bengali sentences into English. He did it correctly. I then asked him why his knowledge on English literature was poor in spite of being a senior honours student of English. He said his university is familiarising his class with the lives and names of works of various English writers and poets. They will have to read the literature on their own after completing the studies in the university. He said it was what his teachers told his class.
Owning a university is noble and prestigious. Running it nicely on a sound basis is a good business. It expands the opportunities for higher studies and manpower development. But running it deceitfully for making money only is not only immoral but also an anti-state activity whose parallel is a clandestine war against the state, aimed notoriously at dismantling or weakening it.
Some private universities of this country are doing quite well. But some are deceitful entities spoiling the future of many of our children. I am disgusted at their sub-standard performance. May I ask the University Grants Commission through the Ministry of Education about the kind of role it performs in the discharge of its assigned task of supervising the private universities. Like me, many of our people want to see most of the former and present bosses of the commission brought to the dock for trial along with the owners and top managers of the fraudulent private universities. They must answer our questions and explain their conduct.
A senior citizen
Mirpur, Dhaka.

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