Students break into Secretariat to demand education advisor’s resignation

The protesters say the demands are due to several factors, including negligence of duty and mistakes in question papers

Students have stormed the Secretariat to demand the resignations of the education advisor and the education secretary.

Initially, the students surrounded the Dhaka Education Board on Tuesday afternoon. From there, they went to the Secretariat around 1:30pm.

Students from Dhaka’s Birsreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public College, Dhaka College, City College, Ideal College, Noor Muhammad College, Mirpur Bangla College, Commerce College, Adamjee Cantonment College, Mirpur College, and other students sitting for their Higher Secondary Certificate exams and their juniors are taking part in the protest.

Mahmudul Hasan Arefin, an HSC examinee and student at Birsreshtha Munshi Abdur Rouf Public College, said they are demanding the resignations of the education advisor and education secretary for various reasons, including mistakes in the question paper and negligence of duty.

All those responsible for the education board should be dismissed and all education boards should use the same question papers, he said.

In addition, a proper investigation into the military jet crash at Milestone School and College should be conducted and accurate information should be published, Arefin demanded.

Tanvir, a student of City College, said the HSC exams in Gopalganj were postponed for a minor reason, but despite repeated requests, the HSC exam was not immediately postponed following the jet crash at the Milestone School and College in Dhaka’s Diabari.

When it was eventually postponed at 3am, not all the students were informed in time, and many went to the exam centre in the morning to sit for the tests, he said.

Tanvir called this a continuation of the officials’ negligence of duty.

“We demand the resignation of this education secretary and education advisor. We will not return home before their resignations are confirmed."

Several thousand students have taken up positions in front of Gate No. 3 of the Secretariat. The rest of the gates have been blocked. Law enforcers are present at the scene, but there has been no unrest.