Shahidul Alam's Pathshala operates without affiliation

Shahidul Alam’s Pathshala South Asian Media Institute has run courses on photography and cinema for more than 15 years now, unrecognised by a government entity and without any institutional affiliation mandatory for giving out certificates.

The Pathshala South Asian Media Institute, founded in 1998 by Alam, offers graduate, diploma as well short and long-term courses and awards certificates — all of it without any kind of recognition from an appropriate authority in Bangladesh.

Former teachers and students claim that Alam, founder of Drik, deliberately avoids getting approvals in an effort to maintain his control over the institution.

Alam has, however, maintained for the last two decades at home and abroad that ‘efforts were on’ to get Pathshala affiliated to a local university and manage some kind of government approval for it.

There are allegations that Alam has brought foreign donations worth ‘millions’ for Pathshala and diverted them to other organisations founded by him, including the Drik Gallery.

Alam, however, says Pathshala is a non-profit entity, which is governed by a trust.

“It’s true that institutional recognition is necessary to award certificates and we do not have that. We are trying to get an affiliation from the Mass Communication and Journalism department at the Dhaka University,” he told bdnews24.com.

The Dhaka University's journalism department, however, denies receiving Pathshala's application or processing it. The government says certificates given by unapproved institutions are ‘invalid.’

“No institution can operate without approval. We will initiate measures against them,” said Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid.

Pathshala, which describes itself as the ‘pioneer media school in Bangladesh’, offers courses under its two departments— Photography and Cinema.

A person has to spend Tk 80, 000 for the one-year courses offered by them. Other courses are more expensive.

According to its website, their advisory board includes former caretaker government adviser and retired civil servant Abdul Muyeed Chowdhury, private airlines Novo Air’s CFO Arshad Jamal, movie producer Catherine Masud, whose production 'Matir Moyna' is the first Bangladeshi film to be screened at the Cannes, national daily New Age Editor Nurul Kabir, photographers Pedro Mayer and Raghu Rai.

Despite no recognition from any Bangladeshi university, Pathshala courses are recognised by several foreign universities, says Alam.

He claimed that the kind of training they provide on photography is given at ‘very few institutions across the world.’

“We do not have any recognition from local bodies, but foreign institutions have evaluated our curriculum and teaching methods by sending their teams.

“After going through details, they have declared our degrees as equivalent to what they award,” said Alam, who has a PhD on chemistry from a UK university.

He claimed that some universities in the UK, Australia and Denmark have accepted their graduates and some of them were doing their PhDs in Australia.

Asked why they are yet to secure recognition in Bangladesh, 18 years after they started to operate, Alam cited ‘different types of problems.’

“Dhaka University does not have any expert to evaluate photography standards. Who will do that? The foreign institutes have done that as they have such people.

“But still we have to go through a process. We both are trying. I hope it will be done soon,” he said.

Alam said they had tried to initiate a process with the BRAC University, but the University Grants Commission did not allow the institution to do so.

He claimed that Dhaka University (DU) authorities have evaluated their facilities and approved them. “But I don’t know how long it will take. You can’t say anything definite about government bodies.”

DU Journalism Department Chairman Mafizur Rahman, however, said no such process to affiliate Patshala with his department, was in progress.

“They contacted us once seven years ago, but that’s it. Nothing has been done since then,” Professor Mafizur Rahman told bdnews24.com.

A former Pathshala teacher said that he has doubts whether Alam really wants to get Pathshala recognised.

“It will jeopardise his control. He will not be able anymore to fire anyone whenever he wants,” he said on condition of anonymity.

Education Minister Nahid described it as a ‘fraud.’ “This can’t go on. The donations they are bringing from abroad are illegitimate as well.”

Alam’s ‘autocracy’ in Pathshala
 
In an interview with the BBC, Alam had said it was during his days as a teacher at a London university he got interested in photography, which he said was a ‘coincidence.’
 
In 1984, he returned to Bangladesh and started photography.
 
Four years later, in 1989, he founded ‘Drik’, which started as a picture library and later expanded as a photo agency, gallery, Pathshala as well as an IT arm, Drik ICT.
 
In April this year, Alam fired Pathshala’s Cinema department chief Ishtiaque Zico and a few other teachers.
 
Speaking to bdnews24.com, Alam said then he had to do it to ‘save’ the organisation, which was in financial crisis.   
 
The move agitated Cinema department students, who then left the organisation without getting any refund of part of their tuition fees they had already paid.
 
“We had enrolled under Zico as movie-making is not like other textbook based study, there’s a place of ideology in it as well. So there’s no question to continue after he left,” said Mitali Dash, a former student.
 
Zico said that for some ‘mysterious reasons’ Alam does not keep anyone more than a year in Pathshala. “It’s his strategy.”
 

He told bdnews24.com that the Cinema department was established with foreign donations.  “After the funds expired, he pressured me to arrange for more funds, but I did not agree.”

Zico, a filmmaker himself, said that his job responsibilities did not include arranging funds. He also claimed that there was ‘lack of transparency’ in spending those funds.

“But I had to clear the spending report in the wake of the situation then. He had fired me and four to five others on a day’s notice because we did not manage more donations,” he said while speaking to bdnews24.com.
 
Funds from the Netherlands
 
In 2011, the Netherlands government approved almost Tk 85 million for Pathshala’s Cinema department.

The three-year term assistance came with conditions of making the department financially independent, securing the government’s accreditation and offering post-graduate courses in broadcast journalism.
 
Former Cinema department directors claimed that Alam has managed to withdraw the whole amount on fake expense heads.
 
Arnob Chakrabarty, a director, who had been involved from the very beginning of the project, was relieved and replaced by Zico.
 
“The final report was cleared by me, but I had doubts over transparency in some of the expense heads. I could not protest at that time because the situation was not conducive,” said Zico.
 
He claimed that some equipment has been brought with the fund, but most of it was channelled elsewhere.
 
Alam, however, says that they did not violate any condition.
 
“We are trying to improve the standards. There were some conditions, including infrastructure development, government recognition. But they have been not violated since we are trying for it now.”