Dhaka, Sep 17 Several students of polytechnic institutes across Bangladesh staged a protest in Dhaka and other districts, raising concerns over a worsening crisis in technical education and shrinking opportunities for engineers in the country's job market, local media reported on Wednesday.
The protestors from the government and private polytechnic institutes, Technical Schools and Colleges (TSC) and other institutions under the Bangladesh Technical Education Board blocked the capital’s Satrasta intersection to press home various demands.
The blockade brought severe traffic to a standstill in Satrasta and surrounding areas, leaving office-goers and commuters stranded.
Confirming the development, Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police's Tejgaon Division, Ibne Mizan, said, "About a thousand students are occupying the road. We are speaking with them and trying to bring the situation under control."
The students alleged that a powerful group is intentionally undermining technical education to erode the polytechnic system and limit entry to the engineering profession.
“A powerful syndicate has captured the technical education system. They are closing our paths. We will not tolerate this injustice anymore,” Bangladeshi media outlet UNB quoted one of the protesters as saying.
Meanwhile, in the Dinajpur district of Bangladesh, polytechnic institute students blocked railway lines in the morning as part of the ongoing protest.
They gathered at the Fulbari Rail Crossing, bringing train services to a halt and leaving the Dhaka-bound Drutojan Express and the Rajshahi-bound Banglabandha Express trains stranded at the Dinajpur Railway Station after arriving from Panchagarh.
The demands included giving due recognition to technical education, ensuring equal opportunities for polytechnic graduates in the engineering profession, and stopping recruitment barriers through syndicates.
Additionally, they called for eliminating discrimination in higher education, extending government facilities to private polytechnic students, and integrating technical education as a key pillar of the national development policy.
Last month, several students from engineering universities, including Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), blocked Shahbagh intersection in Dhaka, pressing home their three-point demand.
Subsequently, at least 50 students were injured after violent clashes broke out with police as engineering students attempted to march towards Jamuna, the residence of interim government Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus, to push their three-point demand.
Bangladesh has been gripped with numerous protest movements and extreme lawlessness after the Yunus-led interim government assumed power in August 2024.
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