The students of polytechnic institutes across the country on Tuesday kept their respective institutions locked as they began an indefinite campus shutdown programme to press home their six-point demand.
They locked their institutes in the morning and vowed to continue the movement until meeting their demands including the cancellation of a High Court verdict that allowed the promotion of craft instructors to the post of junior instructor.
In Dhaka, students of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute staged a demonstration and brought out a procession on their campus at about 11:30am.
As part of their shutdown programme, they forced everyone to leave the campus and then locked the gates of the institution.
Addressing a press conference at the institute, Bangladesh Karigori Chhatra Andolan Bangladesh central representative Mashifiq Islam said, 鈥榃e will continue the shutdown until meeting our demands.鈥�
鈥榃e have boycotted all classes and academic activities during the shutdown,鈥� said Mashifiq, also a student of Dhaka Polytechnic Institute.
Students of different polytechnic institutes, including Jhenidah Polytechnic Institute, Rajshahi Polytechnic Institute, Lakshmipur Polytechnic Institute, Rangpur Polytechnic Institute, Kushtia Polytechnic Institute, Gopalganj Polytechnic Institute, Cumilla Polytechnic Institute, Feni Polytechnic Institute, Sirajgonj Polytechnic Institute and Chapainawabganj Polytechnic Institute kept their respective institutes locked on the day, reports received from the districts said.
On Sunday, polytechnic students staged demonstrations on their campuses to resume their protests after a five-day suspension of their programme.
They announced the suspension of their movement on April 22 after staging demonstrations for seven consecutive days.
On April 16, polytechnic students across the country began demonstrations by blocking roads, highways and rail tracks in Dhaka and other districts causing huge suffering to the people to press home their demands.
The demands also included the cancellation of the opportunity to enroll in the diploma in engineering course at any age, ensuring a four-year quality curriculum based on the model of the developed world, and taking legal action against the organisations that are appointing diploma engineers in posts lower than the 10th grade.
The country has 482 polytechnic institutes, according to the Bangladesh Economic Review-2024.
The estimated number of students in the institutes is over 3,00,000, according to the Bangladesh Education Statistics-2022.
