Four classrooms for 15 batches

If you go to the Marine Science and Fisheries Institute of Chittagong University, you will surely come across a bunch of students waiting outside a classroom for another group to finish their class.

As soon as the class finishes, they hurry inside having no time left to waste. Another group will also similarly wait before the class finishes.   

This is a common scenario at the institute having only four classrooms for around 400 students.

The institute which started in 1985 with only marine science has now three disciplines -- two others are fisheries and oceanography -- under which 15 batches of students are currently enrolled.

Though the number of students has increased over the years, that of classrooms remain the same.

Biplob Gosh, a third-year student of Fisheries, said, “Due to the shortage of classrooms we get to attend maximum two classes a day, sometimes even one, which is one of the reasons we face session jam.”

“As we do not have enough classrooms, the seminar room is also used as one,” he said.

However, this is not the only problem that they are facing. Students said they have only 23 teachers and only one seminar library for 400 students.

There are around 90 courses taught under the three disciplines, so it is a major challenge for a small number of teachers to complete before the deadline, said many teachers of the institute.

“Though all the departments should have a seminar library but in our case we are sharing one with students of two other departments,” said Ibrahim Sifat, a third-year student of Oceanography.

“As a result the seminar library remains jam-packed with students of the three departments most of the time leaving limited scope for us to utilise the resources,” said Sifat.

Apart from those, five laboratories with no modern equipment is another major problem that the students of this institute face.

Sourav Saha Joy, a third-year student of Marine Science department, said, “We could not conduct any biological tests on fish as these laboratories lack modern equipment.”

Moreover, due to the lack of trained manpower, chemicals in the laboratories are being damaged gradually, he said.  Despite repeated appeal to lessen the sufferings, the authorities did not take any action, he added.

Many of the students also said their is no canteen in the institute for students.

If students get hungry they have to go to the nearby canteen of the biology department which is a 10-minute walk from the institute.

Contacted, a teacher of the institute wishing anonymity said, “Due to the classroom shortage we could not complete courses in due time, which is the reason for session jam.”

He also informed that they do not have any specialised teachers for physics, chemistry, mathematics and some others subjects.

“The budget allocated for our three disciplines is equal to that of one department so it is not possible for us to buy new instruments,” he added.

M Zahedur Rahman Chowdhury, director of the institute, told The Daily Star that they are well aware of the problems which will be solved very soon as the university authorities have already sent a proposal for the development of the institute to the government.

The proposal, which is now under a close watch of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, will be approved anytime by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), he added.