Plight of Carmichael College

Carmicheal College is one of the biggest colleges in the country. The campus has an area of 800 bighas. No other college in the country has such a spacious campus. About 18,000 students across the country, mainly from the eight northern districts, are studying at this college for graduate and post-graduate degree in fourteen subjects.

Almost one hundred years old, the college is one of the national heritages of the country. It also boasts a nice campus with big buildings constructed according to the Indo-Saracen architectural design. The then Governor of undivided Bengal, Lord Thomas David Baron, laid the foundation stone of the college on November 16, 1916. Calcutta University permitted the college to offer graduate course in 1917. Students from distant places including Assam and Jolpaikuri in India came here to study. Later Calcutta University permitted the college to offer honours and masters courses in different subjects.

Insufficient teaching staff and an inadequate number of student hostels and teachers' quarters are the main problems of the college. There are two hostels for female students and four for male students in the college. These hostels can accommodate only 1,100 students. The rest of the students, excluding those who are residents of Rangpur town and its adjoining areas, live at mess houses at different places in the town.

To stay at these mess houses is costlier than to stay at the college hostels. Therefore, many students remain at home. They only come to the campus to appear for their exams. The suffering of the female students knows no bound. Having failed to arrange beds at the hostels, about 5,000 female students stay at the mess houses. Due to the lack of security there, they often find troubles in these mess houses.

Abdus Salam, a JCD leader of the college said that a proposal to set up two more hostels at the college was made to the concerned minister of the district, Alamgir Kabir. The minister also assured the college that more hostels will be built.

The ratio of students to teachers in the college is 144:1. No department of the college has sufficient teachers. Forty posts of teachers are now lying vacant in the college. Well placed sources say that five posts in political science and three in philosophy are lying vacant.

The condition of the other departments is similar.

The dream of the people to see Carmichael College as a university is yet to come true. Different governments during the last twelve years have made committments to turn the college into a university, but no government has taken a sincere initiative to follow up on this commitment.

There has been a movement in Rangpur and its adjoining districts for many years, demanding that Carmichael College be turned into Carmichael University. Though commitments have been made, no government has taken any steps to turn the college into a university.

Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, ignoring the demands for Carmichael University, in 2000 declared her intention to set up Rangpur Science and Technology University. Her government decided to set up it on 300 acres of land of Carmicheal College. Accordingly, she laid the foundation stone at the eastern side of the college, despite people's volley of objection.

The people of Rangpur and its adjoining districts could not accept the decision to set up Rangpur Science and Technology University. They termed it a mockery and raised the demand for Carmicheal University once again. Although a project director for the science and technology university has been appointed and an office was rented temporarily in Rangpur town to run the project works, the BNP-led coalition government cancelled the project immediately after they came to the power in 2001.

In answering session in parliament, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has said that Carmichael College will be turned into a university in the course of time. She did not mention when it will be done. BNP and Chhatra Dal of the district brought out a victory procession in Rangpur town following her statement.

It has been six months since the prime minister made this statement in parliament. No initiative has been taken to follow up on her statement. People have begun to criticise the prime minister's statement regarding Carmichael University. The people expect that the government to fulfill its pledge to turn Carmichael College into a full-fledged university. Unless this demand is met, thousands of students in the northeastern region of the country will continue to be deprived of the opportunity to receive higher education.

The author is a freelance writer and contributor to The Daily Star.