Polytechnic students across the country held district-wide rallies on Sunday demanding comprehensive reforms in the technical education sector.
Organised under the banner of Karigari Chhatra Andolon, Bangladesh (Technical Students’ Movement of Bangladesh), the demonstrations were part of a pre-announced nationwide programme aimed at pressing a six-point charter of demands.
In Dhaka, the rally took place in front of the Women’s Polytechnic Institute in Agargaon. Students gathered in large numbers, holding banners and placards, and chanting slogans such as “Abu Sayeed Mughda—The Struggle Isn’t Over”, “Tools to Build the Nation—Rise Once Again”, and “Polytechnic Students, Unite!”
The movement builds on earlier actions, including the “Rise in Red” campaign, protest marches wearing funeral shrouds, and a symbolic blockade at Tejgaon’s Saat Rasta intersection.
Although a railway blockade had been planned for Thursday, 17 April, students temporarily suspended it to attend a meeting with the Ministry of Education. Following an unsatisfactory outcome, they pledged to intensify their protest.
The students’ six-point demand includes cancellation of the High Court verdict promoting craft instructors, who were allegedly appointed illegally, modernisation of the curriculum in English to meet international standards and reservation of 10th-grade technical posts exclusively for diploma graduates.
The other demands are an end to the appointment of non-technical officials within the technical education sector, formation of a Technical Education Reform Commission and a separate Ministry for Technical Education and establishment of a dedicated Technical University to increase access to higher education for diploma holders.
Student leaders have firmly stated that there is “no question of stepping back from the movement until these demands are fulfilled.”