Only two eligible for Dhaka University’s English Department!

Only two are eligible to enrol at Dhaka University’s Department of English after the Arts Faculty took entry tests.

The department will enroll 150 students as freshers, and 125 among them will come from those who sat for ‘Kha’ unit tests under the Arts Faculty.

The rest will be taken in from those who will sit ‘Gha’ unit test on Friday.

Experts say only two passed under the newly set requirements for the English Department. The situation has worried university authorities who are now thinking of suspending the department’s entry requirements.

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“We won’t leave one seat empty,” ‘Kha’ unit test coordinator and Arts Faculty Dean Prof Sadrul Amin told bdnews24.com. “But we’ll decide later how that can be achieved.”

Students seeking to enter the premier public university’s English Department need a combined score of 200 in English in SSC and HSC examinations. They must answer compulsory ‘Elective English’ questions during admission test.

They must secure minimum 20 marks in ‘General English’ and 15 in ‘Elective English’.

The results for ‘Kha’ unit tests, held on Sept 19, were released on Tuesday evening.

Only 3,874 of 40,565 who took the tests passed while 2,221,seats are available.

The results pasted on the Faculty of Arts’ notice board shows that one Jannatul Ferdous Dola, placed third on the merit list, and Shahbaz Amin Bhuiyan, at 106, have matched the entry requirements.

Only 17 of the 3,874 who passed answered ‘Elective English’ questions. Fifteen among them could not secure the necessary 15 marks in ‘Elective English’.

Dean Prof Sadrul Amin could not say how many among the 40,565 candidates attempted to answer the questions under that category.

“There are around 1,700 who did,” he said.

Meanwhile, Prof Amin held meetings with the department’s teachers to discuss how their classrooms can be filled with students who meet the mark.

“The entry test could not get students with our requirements, so we sat to discuss the issue,” English Department Chairperson Prof Tahmina Ahmed said.

“Everyone there favoured suspending the conditions.”

“We’ll send this proposal to the admission committee. It will take effect if they approve it.”