Humiliation as a University Teacher in Bangladesh - it cant be paid

Md Atiqur Rahman Ahad 

Sunday early morn: went to the dept. from 8:30am class. Back home at 5:45pm [just had lunch, could not manage time for a cup of tea] - busy day.

~9pm: I watched a video clip on univ. teachers. I felt speechless n staring at the window. Ruba asked me - what happened. No reply. After a while, I dropped myself to the floor - felt veeeery empty n frustrated n was talking to myself... 

Not sure what happened next - I woke up after ~10 hrs in the morning today - on the floor - without any pillow [luckily, I found a MickeyMouse doll under my head]. I was soooooooooooo upset n till now, feeling saaaaad. 

I chose to work at DU n worked soooooooooooo hard to score the top so that I could make sure that I can be a teacher at DU. I went to Australia - could move to NZ or USA or Canada for PhD - but returned n joined here. Left for PhD - returned; left for JSPS postdoc fellowship - returned in a situation when one should not. I was inhuman to leave my few months-old Rumaisa n PhD-student Ruba in a place of almost no support. Luckily, Kenji san, Matsuoka sensei & Washim vai were great to be supportive to her. I left when I had offers to work there. My Supervisor surprisingly retorted when I declined instantly '... why do u want to return - whereas nobody returns?' - he gave examples of all the BD students he knew [all examples - no return to BD]. He tried to convince me through the situation of my new-born daughter of few weeks n my wife [who was in PhD study]. I said no. Then he told me to discuss with my wife, then to arrange a meeting with him. I was adamant to return. Talked to Sukhan Zahid Parvez vai for his advice though but I was negative. My wife was so upset on me that she angrily told Rumaisa once that - see, ur father is returning to BD - to be the President of BD!!! 

I did not make any meeting - then my Supervisor asked me for a meeting n he asked me what I decided. I was blind. I was blind twice in my life - one for someone & had a real bad state in life; and another for DU. 

My sincere reply to him: 'see Sensei! After 2nd World War, many Japanese left Japan to overseas for higher studies n training n they returned n built this beautiful Japan today. I dream to be part of the development of BD, n what I learnt from Japan and from you - I want to give my best try at DU n contribute.' 

Truly that was my dream n great great hope. He, with loving gesture, wished me the best n told me whenever u feel to return, inform me. I thanked him. I had 2 more good scopes [as I had good connections mainly].

Md Atiqur Rahman Ahad 

Professor, University of Dhaka

NEW PAY SCALE:TIPS AND TRICKS

AKM JAMAL UDDIN

Cabinet in its regular weekly meeting on 7th September 2015 has approved the long expecting pay scale for different levels of servicemen of government, semi-government and autonomous bodies. Some important stakes of the servicemen had been having a longstanding dissatisfaction over the pay commission recommendation from the very beginning when it was first submitted to the government. It is no-doubt that this newly introduced pay scale has devalued and deprived primarily the teacher community -the highest intellectually vibrant section of the society. Teachers’ community especially the public university teachers have been in a movement for the demand of separate pay structure and righteous dignity in the warrant of precedence in line with our neighboring countries in the sub-continent. The ruling AL had also promised in their election manifesto in 2008 to introduce a separate pay structure for all levels teachers of educational institutions in society. Accordingly, immediately after the resuming in power, AL government took an initiative to formulate a separate pay structure for the teachers community and the then education advisor Professor Dr Alauddin Ahmed MP had made his recommendations to the government in the light of prevailing pay and dignity of teachers in the governments under SAARC nations. Until the announcement of latest pay scale, the teachers community of Bangladesh used to know that the government was going to implement the separate pay structure for them.

If the policy makers in the government mechanism look around the teachers pay and dignity in neighboring nations, they must find the rationale in favor of teachers demand for separate pay structure. For that reason, the political stream inside the government mechanism has been hesitating for last couple of months to announce the pay scale in its present form that was due since 1st July last. Lastly, cabinet has approved the pay scale with zero changes. This approved pay scale has awarded the tips to the bureaucracy while has pushed the university teachers into harsh tricks. It is not a mistakes-it is considered as a trick played by vested interests to demoralize the present movement of the teachers community of the country for their long standing demand for separate pay structure from primary to university level of educational institutions. Is it done intentionally to downgrade their position by four levels (i.e. below Principal Secretary, Senior Secretary, Grade-1 and Grade-2) in present pay scale? The trick is that, just downgrade them for 4-5 levels that will keep them intact to the movement for the previous pay, and as a result, they will be derailed and forget their longstanding demand of separate pay structure. It is really frustrating and unfortunate that an inappropriate manner is playing through such awful-hatred-unkind tricks with purely non-political teaching constituents of the society who use to sacrifice their entire life to teach and build up our children and future generation. The government that intentionally devalue and downgrade their most intellectual and meritorious section of the society can never survive in the functioning of its state mechanism. It needs to keep in mind that the most meritorious students who use to stand tops of his/her classes from primary to university level education become the teachers of the university in comparison to any other servicemen and employees of the government. Once there was such a great honor for the brilliant performance in the class and laboratory, the top ranked students were humbly requested with great invitation from the Department or from the University authority to start lectures in the class room and for that they did not need any formal appointment. In the time, there are changes in the procedures of appointment, but the theme to honor their brilliant performance has not changed at any level. It is regretful as well as painful that our present state mechanism is not capable to nourish the brilliants of our society. They seem to establish control over the meritorious of the society by bureaucracy rather than to be respectful to them and that ultimately lead them to be unable to establish order of merit in society. This is the moral duty of the society and government to establish the order of merit in pay and dignity for its citizens in all respects. If it is not ensured, the inherent struggle of the civilized society, state and government to establish liberty, freedom, equality, impunity and justice for every citizen under the rule of democracy will be jeopardized and vanished in the darkness, and therefore the major intuitions of the society will mislay their ways for the incessant efforts of nation building.

The content of the conflict has been ignited when government has created two more superior positions and grades in pay scale for the bureaucracy--Senior Secretary and Principal Secretary/Cabinet Secretary. It is praising that the government can take any such measure to give incessant encouragement for any section of its employees. At the same time, its mechanism needs to keep in mind that any such new measures will not jeopardize the status of other servicemen as well. It is regretful that the introduction of new two senior positions have affected and downgraded the present positions of the university teachers. The university teachers have the present positions as: Lecturer, Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, Professor (pay grade-3), Time scale Professor (pay grade 2) and Selection grade Professor (pay grade 1). If you look carefully, pay grade 1 professor is also called as selection grade professor which, in fact, is equivalent to the position of Secretary (pay grade 1) of the bureaucracy. Even after that, government has created those two more superfluous positions and grades in the new pay scale for bureaucracy. However, government has also approved those two positions for three forces-Army, Navy and Air Forces. Even, Government has special arrangement of pay and privileges for the Justices of the higher Judiciary in the country. Any lay man of the society can understand this situation how the most brilliant professionals of the government has been devalued and deprived in this arrangement of pay structure. Does anybody need any extra knowledge to understand this large difference in the pay and privilege of the bureaucrats with the university teachers as displayed in the recent dodgy comments of our beloved Finance Minister?

Why it is needed to form such a super positions in the bureaucracy and for three other forces institutions of the nation. The inherent cause may be that to attract the meritorious students into those institutions. Now it is the duty of the policy makers and statesmen of the state mechanism to understand the circumstance of which institutions of a democratic society needs the meritorious students for their smooth running to achieve the incessant prosperity of the nation. The leaders in all level of the democratic society are taught and brought up by the enlightened learning from the university and by all levels of the academic institutions of the society. Our Ministers, MPs, bureaucrats, policy makers, doctors, engineers, scientists, civil society, army, police, businessmen, entrepreneurs, soldiers, as a whole, all expertise are built in the University and academic institutions. In that case, government needs to understand that the brilliant people need to stay in the university rather than in any other institutions of the society. The democratic leadership of the society needs to have control over all other institutions of the society, and that learning comes from in the university. Therefore, government should give all its strength to strengthen the breeding field of democracy, i.e. the university and academic institution- the highest echelon of the center of excellence in society. Lets look carefully the present trends in far and nearest nations around the world. They have been giving honor and superiority in pay and privileges to the teachers community of their society. This is the ground for which the teachers have been demanding the separate pay for them in accordance with the line of pay for the teachers in other nations around the world-at least as it is in the sub-continent. Needs to keep in mind that if you do not place the teachers in the top of the society, the normal order of the growth of moral, honesty and patriotism of our children and the future generation will be gone down.

It should not be such a matter to establish the ‘supremacy rule’ of the bureaucracy in society. It is the matter of our children for whom they prefer to accept as a model of their life to build up themselves as the future leaderships citizen of the country. The children of our future generation will not move around the bureaucrats or Army or any other institutions of the society. They move around only the teachers of the society The policy maker should understand the inherent sprit of society that the children of our future generation for a greater period of their life from the childhood to adulthood (5-25 years) moves around the teachers of the academic institutions. It is the period of building their moral, honesty and patriotism for the society. If we can build our teachers community as the model for our children and can make our teachers resourceful-respectful to our children—that will help to build our future generation to be more morally sound, honest and patriot—a corruption free individual will brought up from there in academic institutions. It is no doubt praising news I have seen in Daily Prothom Alo how nicely our education secretary is hugging his primary school teacher. Many of us have been doing this to our beloved teachers on some occasions when we return to village. What we need is to institutionalize this respectful behavior to them by all segments of our society. In the present atmosphere of our administration, a TNO or a DC or a SP orders a Principal/teacher to come and meet with him/her in his office. Will it not more be sound instance for our children if those bureaucrats go to the offices of the teachers to hear their views, if any? I mean if we can make our teachers more respectful, our children will be more inclined to teachers to be more morally rich, honest and patriot. Will it not be more prestigious decoration of a greater moral society if our cabinet secretary, principal secretary and forces’ chiefs will stand up when they will see the senior most teachers of the university? Will it not be more brilliant and great instances if our President, Prime Minister, Ministers, MPs, Leaders frequently visit the academic institutions formally or informally and share their views and exchange bows with teachers in front of our children? These great instances will make our teachers community more great, respectful and resourceful so as to make our children more enlightened as morally sound, honest and patriot as next generation citizen of our nation. Accordingly, the structure of pay and dignity for the teachers should be arranged in this rightful instinct of society.

How can we come out from this present turmoil of crisis? There are two approaches of solution- long term and short term. In the long term solution, the government must introduce an independent pay commission with multi-faceted expert members to initiate a separate pay structure for all levels of the teachers in the academic institutions. For short-term and urgent measures government can consider the following suggestions.

First: Government has cancelled the selection grade and time scales. In fact, selection grade and time scale have been introduced where promotion of the government employees is blocked. Now Government will make an arrangement in the new scale /grades for those who are already in those grades. For example, University Professors has been getting their pay in three grades: Grade 3, Grade-2 and Grade-1. The grade 2 pay was awarded by time scale and grade-1pay was awarded by selection grade which is equivalent to the scale of secretary in line of bureaucracy. Now government will treat these selection grade professors as “grade-1 professor” in line with present pay scale. In this way, government can keep the previous line of pay for the university teachers. In another way, as the selection grade and time scale cancelled, if the government wants to give a benefit to the university professors, it can transform their previous 3 grades of pay into 2 grades i.e. to grade-2 and grade-1. As a result, whole structure of pay scale for university teachers will be upgraded to one position. Lecturer will get the present pay scale of Assistant Professor, Assistant Professor will get the present pay scale of Associate Professor and the Associate Professor will get the present pay scale of previous grade-3 professor. Government can do this to establish an order of merit in society, which will also cover some of dis-satisfactions and grounds for present movement for better pay for the university teachers. A student who stands top rank in his/her all classes from primary tire to university level education should be employed in a superior scale (in the position of lecturer) than all other entry level government employment which is not in practice now. According to the present provisions of pay, in the entry level 1st class government services, lecturers, BCS cadres, non-cadres and other job holders get the similar pay scale. In present circumstances, in fact, we do not reward anything in pay or in privilege to those who stand tops in their classes at university level and become teachers in academic institutions. There should be a difference with lecturers of the university with other 1st class employees at the entry level in recognition to their superiority in merits. We should give them a higher pay in recognition of their brilliant performances in classes-we should give them something an extra pay. Accordingly, it will be praiseworthy for the government to upgrade the pay of lecturer to one position as it is the present scale of Assistant Professor. Only in this way, the lecturers of the university can be honored in pay for displaying their extraordinary brilliant results and performance in the classes of their all level education.

Second, government has created more two higher scales for bureaucracy only, which has made an anger difference with highest meritorious constituents of the society –the university teachers. It is a damaging loophole of this pay scale. It is an injustice to the teachers as well as all other government servicemen at any consideration. Government can’t block, legally and morally, the highest position service of the republic only for a single constituent-bureaucracy who will control rest of the cadres or servicemen of the state. Because, there are some other constituents who are by dint of their performance and merit is superior to bureaucracy. Those other meritorious constituent servicemen will not obey the order and control of the bureaucracy on them guided by their inherent nature of superior personality and individualism. Under present situation, it should be considered as a total disaster and disorder. Government can solve this problem in three ways: First: Government can dissolve those two superior pay scales and can follow the order of previous pay scale to come out from the present chaos. If it is not possible, second, government can keep open these two higher scales of pay for not only bureaucracy, but also for all cadres including university teachers, and in future the positions of senior secretary, cabinet secretary and principal secretary will be filled up by a competitive manner from all constituent of servicemen under a search commission/ regulated authority, and to implement this approach, government will have not required any additional revenue. However, if the bureaucracy is serious and inclined to keep those two senior pay scales to reserve only for their constituent, government can follow an alternative third approach to fill up the gap imposed by creating those two superior pay scales for bureaucracy. In that case, government need to introduce those two pay grades for the rest of cadres who feel them as deprived constituents. Especially, government can’t ignore the constituent of university teachers so as to introduce those two senior scales for them as they are considered superior by dint of their merit to all other constituent servicemen of the government. The parameters, provisions and quantity for those who among the university teachers will be qualify for those two superior pay grades will be created under a guideline of the University Grant Commission.

Third: the present position of the university teachers in the warrant of precedence has been igniting in a great dissatisfaction among them. To address this issue in a positive manner, I would suggest the government to create a pool of 3 grades for the Vice-Chancellors of the public universities so as to their pay and privilege. The grade-1 Vice-Chancellors will be in the rank of full/state minister of the government. The Vice-Chancellors of at least three universities-DU, BUET and BSMMU should be included for this privilege. If you look into the things carefully, you will understand that the highest meritorious students of the country use to take admission in Dhaka University, Medical colleges and BUET. The teachers and leaderships of these three institutions represent the highest echelon of meritorious and intellectual constituents of our society. There should be recognition in prestige and privilege for the leaderships of these three nations worthy universities. I have understood as a participant of many seminar, symposiums and civic gatherings, where both sides of them feel very shaky and look very poor when the Ministers/MPs and the Vice-Chancellors of these three universities sit together in the stages- academics switch to be burned in pains in their heart rather than to be exposed of themselves. As a result, many Ministers /MPs use to avoid the programs in Universities. Even many senior bureaucrats do not feel well to come to these top ranked universities, at least, my experience has seen their rare presence in the universities. We need to change this situation- we want our Ministers, MPs, Mayors, bureaucrats and future leaderships of the society will frequently come to the highest intellectual space of the society. As a result, both sides will be enriched by frequent interactions and sharing their views and as a result our society will advance quickly. Government currently gives this privilege to Justices of Supreme Court and UGC. Government should extend this privilege for the smooth functioning of the warrant of precedence. Accordingly, the grade-2 Vice-Chancellors will be in the rank of Principal Secretary/ Cabinet Secretary and the grade-3 Vice-Chancellors will be in the rank of senior secretary. Government also needs to upgrade the pay of national professor in line with the state minister. Government should also introduce a structure of privilege in the warrant of precedence for the Vice-Chancellors of private universities as well. We should consider these provisions for them as early as possible. 

Lastly, we should keep in mind that earlier in the 1990s or before, there were only 4/5 universities in the country--now there are 121 universities in the country including 37 public universities. We need to consider that this is a larger part of professional servicemen at present in the country, and has already emerged as the dominating factor in the way to peaceful ride on power. Bureaucracy should keep in mind that they can’t act as like as they were in the 1990s or before. Need to understand that time has changed and it is not possible to control anybody under the dynamics of digital progressive society. The inherent dynamics of this digital society is that it will be guided, perused, molded and advanced by the meritorious and honest instinct of the society. In the coming days of the digital society, those who have the merit and virtue of honesty will stay- those who have not will be dumped-please do not mind for what I am using here such hard words. Please look at least to the neighboring nations-what they are doing in this regard.

Last but not the least, we should need to keep in mind that the most important and catalyst constituents for the survival and progress of political democracy is the educated middle class of the society. In any society, this educated middle class moves around the academic institutions of the society. This educated middle class where the key factors are teachers and students control the support base of political democracy. Please look and consider carefully, political parties or any other non-political organizations come to academic institutions for the support base and for the success of their movement. Why? Because academic institutions are the key to increase or decrease the support base for political parties or for government. It is not the matter whether they do politics or do not. It is the matter that only these academic institutions-primary to university level have the direct contact to the each and every member of our society-they use to come here for the purpose of education for their children. No other institutions in our society have such a range of contacts. This is the base and highest political and economic space where the supports of political government are determined. It is, no doubt, you will win if you take them in your consideration and you will lose if you do not.

This large constituent of the teachers and students has now the ability to influence positively or negatively of the power structure. Bureaucracy is also important for government. But only the academic institutions of the society has the larger influence and contacts with general mass of the society that can easily influence the support base of the government. It will be wholly foolishness under current circumstances for government to ignore them at any rate. What is the intrinsic cause of such revolutions in middle-east and around? These governments had done everything for their people- they educated them, fed them and made them economically affluent nation, but what they did not is that to ensure the share or political participation of already visible factor of such educated middle class into their power structure. We need to take lessons. We need to change many things in our government mechanism as per quickly changing trends of our society.

Lets do much more for the meritorious and brilliants of our society and establish the order of merit in all institutions of the state so that this nation is able to reach to the dream height of developing nation around the world by 2041.

Dr. AKM JAMAL UDDIN

 Professor, University of Dhaka

Work abstention of Bangladesh’s teachers may disrupt admission tests

Public university teachers have threatened that the upcoming admission tests to the universities will be disrupted if their four-point demand is not met soon.
"Teachers at almost all the public universities want to boycott the scheduled admission tests. We will take a decision after holding a meeting," said Prof ASM Maksud Kamal, secretary general of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers Association (FBUTA).

FBUTA, a platform for public university teachers, yesterday observed daylong stoppage at all 37 state-run universities.

During a two-hour sit-in in front of the Oporajeyo Bangla at Dhaka University yesterday morning, the federation leaders said they will go for a tougher movement in the form of continuous work stoppage after the Eid holiday if the government does not hold any discussion soon with them about fulfilling their demands.

Rejecting the finance minister, FBUTA President Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed said, "From his speech in the media it seemed that the minister is a representative of the bureaucrats, not of the people. Therefore, we don't think the teachers would get justice from him."

An FBUTA press release yesterday said that in place of the finance minister, teachers want a public representative who is accepted by all.

Federation leaders also said they will sit with Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid tomorrow to discuss their demands.

"The minister has requested us over the phone to sit with him," said Prof Maksud.

Teachers will continue demonstrations till their demands, which include immediate revision of the 8th national pay scale and a separate salary structure for them, are met, he added.

Teachers under the banner of FBUTA have been demonstrating since May 14 to press their four-point demand.

Things, however, turned for the worse after the government approved the new pay scale for all government employees on September 7 with retrospective effect from July 2015.

FBUTA leaders have intensified their agitation programmes since then.

They complained that the post of selection grade professors (senior teachers) has been abolished in the new pay scale although bureaucrats have got a special grade for themselves.

Their four-point demand includes keeping senior professors and senior secretaries at an equal level of payment and benefits as enjoyed by the same grade of government officials.

There are over 13,000 teachers at 37 public universities in the country.

A noble profession disgraced

Quazi Mosiur Rahman

While briefing the media after the cabinet meeting on September 7, an eminent secretary suggested that the government was supposed to consider the maximum benefits of public servants instead of endowing a “particular profession” with greater facilities. His reference seemed to be a blatant and specific jibe at public university teachers. Here, the secretary barely bore in mind that investing on teachers would, to a massive extent, contribute to the greatest welfare of the country as teachers are primarily responsible for creating future leaders in almost every field. Such belittling does not merely exhibit the perception of only one secretary. In fact, many Bangladeshi bureaucrats harbour a similar notion towards teachers.

The prevalent allegations against public university teachers are many. They are supposedly “pawns” in the hands of political parties; they avail their jobs through lobbying and the meritorious candidates are not always given priority; they rarely contribute to seminal research; they have a yearning toward extra earnings no matter what the source is; they frequently show moral degradation and so on and so forth. Amid these charges, the basic question that arises is whether teachers deserve such tasteless comments or are worthy of the dignity and other facilities reserved for “intellectually active” beings. 

At this juncture, the question is, why do teachers become puppets at the hands of political parties which mainly strive to remain in power even at the cost of students' future? It would not be unfair to say that teachers are compelled to negotiate with the nuclei of power which, in a struggling democracy like Bangladesh, are obviously the political parties. Here, institutions barely perform according to proper rule of law. Malgovernance, bribery, corruption are predominant. 

Time and again university professors are often subject to public humiliation and physical assault from various quarters. The latest example can be drawn from the incidents at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST). 

University teachers are primarily organic intellectuals who devote themselves to take society forward in the course of creating and disseminating knowledge. That is why, as a general rule, the brightest students and intellectuals choose to be university teachers. On the other hand, bureaucrats, as taken from Gramsci's theory of intellectual ability, are traditional intellectuals who are professional executives and officials of any particular production system of a state. Here, it is of serious concern that teachers are usually pundits, having very little or no coercive power, while bureaucrats exercise great (as per 'constitutional law') power, having little or no contribution to the spectrum of knowledge. Does this not create an awful sense of insecurity in both camps? Interestingly, to trounce this sense of inadequacy, bureaucrats and officers of law enforcing agencies these days, aspire for PhD degrees, while some teachers work towards acquiring some sort of political backup. 

In general, an allegation against teachers is their meagre contribution to seminal research. In this regard, to what extent should people blame teachers for not being able to produce groundbreaking knowledge in Bangladeshi universities and laboratories? Currently, there's a severe crisis of teachers in public universities and colleges of the country. Most teachers, especially in new universities, are overworked. Along with this, there is very little or absolutely no research grants allocated for research purposes. Under the sway of neoliberal education policy, there is also tremendous pressure of the semester system in all disciplines. Assigned with voluminous syllabi, teachers are always in a rush to complete their syllabus on time due to various political and socio-cultural reasons. They rarely enjoy the space and scope to dig deeper into any topic. As teachers' state of subsistence is almost always under threat, some of them try to earn a little more by teaching in private universities or offering consultancy services to NGOs. As a whole, new ideas are discouraged or put off, contributing to research sterility in universities. 

Ensuring proper facilities for teachers through a separate pay scale and including them in the Warrant of Precedence would certainly help to minimise the perpetual state of crisis in public universities. Uniformity of laws in all public universities can reduce stratification among teachers and staff in different universities. At the same time, political leaders should discourage teachers from blindly serving political parties. Teachers should ideally defend moral standards of society. When they engage in politics, their dubious political practices might diminish their credibility among the general public.

The writer teaches English at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Science and Technology University, Gopalgonj.

Published in: http://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/politics/noble-profession-disgraced-141010

The writer teaches Englis

Unwarranted unrest in the highest seats of learning

 Abdul Mannan, Chairman of the UGC

Suddenly the highest seats of learning, the universities, both in the public and the private sector have become restive resulting in the uncertain future of millions of students studying in these universities. Unrest in public universities is not new. There are regular gun battles in many of the campuses of public universities amongst thugs in the name of student politics for establishing supremacy on the campus.  These days even teacher strikes protesting the irregular activities of some Vice-chancellors also results in suspension of academic activities. In some universities teachers often resort to strikes because they want the removal of their Vice-chancellors alleging corruption and nepotism against them. Sometimes some of these allegations are framed on flimsy grounds and the targeted Vice-chancellors are debarred from discharging their regular duties resulting in the total disruption of administrative and academic matters.

Such actions cause misery not only to students but also to a greater section of teachers themselves.  Vice-chancellors, Pro-vice Chancellors and Treasures both in the public and private sectors are appointed by the President of the Republic who is also the Chancellor. It is his prerogative whom he will appoint or remove. Even one private university removed one such appointed person by order of the Board of Trustee which by any standard is audacious and unacceptable. They virtually challenged the authority of the President of the Republic. Some Boards knowingly or unknowingly often cross their limits set by the law under which they operate. They attempt to create a state within a state. This affects the entire sector. However most of the time they tend to get away as they have strong connection with powerful people in all governments. The current simmering unrest was created when the new pay-scale was announced by the government and a 7.5% VAT imposed on the tuition fees of the students studying in the private universities.

Announcement of new pay scales are always awaited by the people working for the government.  Such announcement brings some respite to the servants of the Republic most of whom, especially those working in the lower rung, always find it difficult to make two ends meet. Not that a new pay scale will solve all the financial woes across the board but it is expected that it will give some breathing space to most of the employees of the state. Historically, from the time of Bangabandhu government all Awami League led government was generous enough to announce a new pay scale even before anyone asked for it. This time it was no exception. It formed a Pay Commission under the leadership of seasoned and former able and competent bureaucrat Dr. Mohammad Farashuddin, onetime Personal Secretary to Bangabandhu and a person who is highly regarded by the Prime Minister. The new Commission after consulting all the stakeholders and doing some tedious homework proposed a sixteen scale grade. The committee did not propose who should be placed at what grade but when it was sent to the Secretary level committee they added four more grades, which by many is seen as benefiting the bureaucrats only. Beyond twenty scales they also proposed separate pay-scale for Principal Secretary and Cabinet Secretary, Senior Secretaries including Secretaries posted in some particular ministries or positions. On top of that, it was also recommended that the Time Scale and Selection Grade also be removed from the new scale. Earlier the university professors were entitled to both the benefits.

Due to such a proposal the University Professors have been relegated few steps behind the secretaries which, as expected, no university teachers have taken it in good earnest. Earlier, all university Professors and Secretaries were grouped together in one scale. Under the proposed scale the Professors will be below the rank of the Secretaries. Practically all the bureaucrats serving the government were one time students either of colleges or universities. The teachers with many of whom I tried to talk said it was a deliberate attempt by some of the bureaucrats to demean them and some even went a bit further saying that some of these bureaucrats once wanted to become university teachers in their early life and not being able to get a berth in the teaching profession now have grinded their axe against them. This may or may not be true but the fact is that the Secretary Committee recommendations on the Pay Scale have created a widespread discontent not only among the university teachers but also among other rank and file of the government servants.

The university teachers have already protested the proposed new scale and the attempt to demean them through forceful relegation and have resorted to abstention from work for few hours every week. They have also announced that if their demands are not met they will go on continuous abstention. Their concern is not how much pay they will get under the new pay scale but about their relegation below the rank of a Secretary. They do not have any strong resentment about how much pay the bureaucrats will be taking home but on where they stand in the rank compared to the bureaucrats. The BCS association have already met the Finance Minister and explained the anomalies in the proposed Secretary-level Committee and how the new proposed pay-scale will be discriminatory for them.

The good thing is that the Finance Minister has assured them that he will review the matter and may come up with a solution that will be acceptable to all.  The Prime Minister’s Office also sent a message to the Finance Minister that it is the desire of the Prime Minister that the new pay-scale should not create any sort of big discontent in the rank and file of the government servants. It is irony that when the government has a big cabinet, where many of the members are quite competent, at times when there is some kind of crisis or discontent in any section of the society they all look up to the Prime Minister for a solution. So far the Prime Minister has not disappointed them. The new pay scale is expected to be tabled before the cabinet early next week. According to some media reports the approved pay scale may to a great extent fulfil the desire of all stakeholders as per the desire of Prime Minister. The government at present has no major problem on its hand so why create an unnecessary one?

According to the new budget the private university students will have to pay a 7.5% VAT on their tuition fees, something unique by any standard. In India there was an attempt to impose such a tax on students which was later withdrawn because of pubic outcry. At present, about 63% of university going  students (excluding National and Open Universities) study in private universities, many of who would either have gone outside the country, often to third grade universities or colleges, often cheated or returning with a useless degrees. The emergence of private universities at least to some extent has managed to stop such an exodus. While studies in public universities are practically completely subsidised by the State, the costs of studying in private universities are borne by the students and their parents along with grants by the founders. The cost of running a private university is also borne on commercial basis and on surplus revenue they have to pay a 15% income tax.

Some people have a wrong idea that those studying in private universities come from affluent society. This is not true. The fact is more than 60 percent of students studying in private universities come from middle and lower middle income families. Some parents meet the education expenses of their children in these universities by selling their immovable property like land. Many students do part time jobs in call centres, super shops and coffee parlours.  Few work as teaching assistants of their teachers. Needless to say that all private universities are not performing up to the expectation and in some the founders do take out money through clandestine channels. But these are different problems that will have to be looked up by the Ministry of Education and the UGC. But imposing a VAT on students needs a second thought as such an imposition will put an extra burden on the students and their parents. Though many think the tax will have to be paid by the university, in reality the VAT is paid by the service receiver and not the giver. So the onus will be on the students and their parents. It is not expected that the students of private universities will go out on the street and get violent to put a pressure on the government but they also expect a realistic intervention of the Prime Minister on this issue. It is again back to the good Prime Minister according to many parents I talked with.

Some small decisions, made judiciously considering the prevailing circumstances can take the country to a newer height of achievement. The country has achieved food autarky under the current government; now it is time to bring about a revolution in the education sector. This is possible with little bit of attention and pragmatic approach by the present government. Let normal condition prevail in all sectors.

The writer is an analyst and commentator, Chairman of the UGC Bangladesh

Source:http://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/69025/Unwarranted-unrest-in-the-highest-seats-of-learning

Downgrading university teachers in pay scale

Dr. Md. Momin Uddin

I want to begin by telling a story. An old man had a horse by which he pulled a cart and earned money to maintain his family. Since he had to depend solely on the income of the horse, he took good care of it. Every day he gave the horse 20 kg food to keep it always healthy and strong. The horse had been truly a blessing and a good friend to the old man for a long time. Before death, the old man told his son to take care of the horse as he did, but the son disregarded the old man’s advice.

He reduced the horse’s food by 5 kg. But, to his great astonishment, the horse was working as much as it did during his father’s time. Some months later, he again deducted 5 kg from the horse’s food, yet the horse carried heavy loads easily, it seemed to the son. Some months later, he again deducted another 5 kg. Now the hose was fed only on 5 kg food. Nevertheless, the horse seemed to be working as hard as it had done in the past. The son was very happy that he was saving money by reducing the food of the horse. But soon one morning he found the horse lying dead in its shed. The son realised that he did a serious mistake by not following his father’s advice.

University teachers in Bangladesh had never been in such a disgraceful position, which they have now been thrown in by the 8th National Pay Commission. Since the independence of the country, no government made any effort to downgrade the status of the university teachers. Although, all these days becoming a university teacher was not as lucrative and profitable as becoming a bureaucrat; yet brilliant students of universities, who stood 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th in Honours and Masters examinations, preferred to becoming university teachers because, although not lucrative, it was at least regarded by people a prestigious profession. And another reason was that university teachers were not at least below the rank of any government official. But if the recommendations made by the 8th National Pay Commission are implemented, university teachers will not only lose their prestige, the whole teaching profession will lose its dignity; and in future no meritorious student will take teaching as a profession. One thing we all should remember that until today only those students who stay in the exams’ results within the first ten of the total number of students of a department dream to become the teachers of a university. So teaching at a university is still a profession that an extraordinarily brilliant student dreams for and takes by choice. But if the present pay commission’s recommendations are implemented, universities will fail to have meritorious students as teachers because then this profession will lose its dignity as university teachers have been downgraded and kept below the rank of the government bureaucrats in the present pay commission’s proposal.

I do not know if there is any country in the world where privileges, once given to people, are taken away. But the present pay commission’s pay scale has taken away not simply a privilege but a right of the university teachers that they have been enjoying since the birth of this country. All these years, university professors of selection grade have been on par with the secretaries on grade one, but for the first time in the history of the country, this pay commission has kept the university professors of selection grade below the rank of the secretaries. More disappointing and insulting for the university teachers, there have been kept four grades above the professors’ rank. Why are the university professors removed from the grade of the secretaries? Some secretaries and a vested quarter are trying to put forward as logic their misconception about the university professors of selection grade. They are propagating a lie that within 10/12 years a university teacher gets promotion to professor. This is perhaps partially true in that if a teacher has a PhD degree and at least 12 and in some universities more than 12 articles of which a fixed number has to be compulsorily written at different stages may be promoted to the rank of professor, but a teacher without a PhD degree has to serve at least 18 years to be promoted to professor if s/he fulfils other criteria of having required number of articles written compulsorily at different stages. And only one-fourth of the total number of professors of a university enjoys the fortune of having selection grade. As a result, in the big universities a teacher even after serving 30 years may not get selection grade. Even many professors retire without getting selection grade. Therefore, the observation of those who say that a university teacher within 10 to 12 years becomes equal to a secretary is a misconception. Moreover, a university professor of selection grade is on par with a secretary only by name, s/he is not entitled to any of the government facilities that a secretary enjoys.

Some people are often quoted in the newspapers as saying that the university teachers of Bangladesh are not as qualified as the teachers of other countries. Even if it is a bit true, the government should necessarily increase the salary of the university teachers to attract more qualified persons in this profession to ensure better education for the nation because we all know that “education is the backbone of a nation” and that “no nation can prosper without education”. But under the proposed pay structure of the 8th National Pay commission, universities will not have teachers even of the present standard in future. It is funny that while the neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka give salaries to university teachers four times more than their counterpart government officials to have the most meritorious students as the teachers of their universities, the present pay commission of Bangladesh has recommended to reduce the salary of the university teachers to serve what purpose only God knows. It is obviously a conspiracy of destroying the education of the country because the pay commission has downgraded the status of the university teachers at a time when the Education Minister more than often said that the present government would make a separate pay scale for the university teachers.

The proposed pay scale has done another bad thing. It has embittered the sweet relationship between the university teachers and their students. University teachers always feel proud of their students who are now high profile government officers. If an ex student of a university becomes a secretary or such a high profile government officer, the whole university feels proud of him. The university professors are intelligent enough to believe that the secretaries are the highest bureaucrats of the country and their teachers feel proud of them. They never feel jealous of the position of their students. Similarly, a secretary also respects his teachers. But the present pay scale has made the university professors and their students stand face to face, creating a hostile relation between them.

What makes the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh – India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka – have a separate pay structure for the university teachers and keep their salary above that of the highest bureaucrats? These countries know that without good teachers, quality education is never possible and that to get qualified persons as teachers of a university there has to be incentives for them. But Bangladesh seems to be realising just the reverse. We want to have better education by keeping teachers underpaid. When neighbouring countries are investing more money in the education sector, our bureaucrats believe investment in education is a waste of money. However, for some decades the country may not suffer any problem in the higher education sector. Even the country may save some money by downgrading the teachers and keeping them ill paid. Even if qualified persons do not join universities, there will be other persons to join there. Yet graduates will be produced from these universities. They will have certificates. Some of them will become high profile bureaucrats one day. But will they have education and knowledge enough to lead the country in the right direction? Are we not deliberately preparing to be turned into a meritless nation in future? We shouldn’t forget the proverb that ‘the cheapest thing is always in a bad condition’.

The writer is Associate Professor, Department of English, Jagannath University


Published on: http://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/68240/Downgrading-university-teachers-in-pay-scale

On university teachers’ demand for a separate pay-scale

Mohit Ul Alam

The proposed 8th national pay-scale has created a furore among the public university teachers as they deem that the suggested salary structure has neither protected their pay benefits nor defined their status. The University Teachers’ Associations Federation, representing the teachers associations of 37 public universities, has raised this issue with several wings of the government and pointed out that the recommendations of the Pay and Service Commission 2013 have been modified by the Secretary Committee in which it appears that the position of the university teachers recognised in the 7th national pay-scale has been downgraded by two steps in the 8th pay-scale, thus hurting the sentiment of the teachers.
The Vice-Chancellors’ Association, known in Bangla as Vishwabidyalay Parishad, has also responded to the grievances of the teachers and in a meeting with the honourable Education Minister on 8 July the Association members voiced their support for the logical demands of the university teachers. While speaking on behalf of the university teachers, the Vice Chancellors, all of whom are basically university teachers too, observed with great anxiety that when the present Honourable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the Honourable Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, MP, are both widely known for their interest in the growth and flourishing of the higher studies across the country, this kind of constraining and prestige demeaning pay-structure cannot have been approved by them, and so they speculated that a section of the influential bureaucrats might have played a black hand in approving a pay-scale inimical to the university teachers. So they smelled a conspiracy somewhere that would not only harm the university teachers but would also tarnish the image of the government, which by all evidence is a pro-education government.
As the discontentment over the pay-scale issue is increasing and programmes such as protest processions, forming human-chains and symbolic abstention from classes by teachers manifest it, some comparative reports show that in the subcontinent all other countries have either a separate pay-scale for university teachers or, if not, an enhanced grade of salary with other tangible benefits. In Sri Lanka, there exists a separate pay-scale for university teachers, and a lecturer begins his career at the university with a monthly basic salary of Rupees 39,754 and highest Rupees 48,445. For a senior professor the monthly salary range is between Rs. 67,100 lowest and Rs. 87,775 highest. In addition, they get extra incentives every month in the form of lifestyle expenses, Rs. 7,800, and for all teachers there is allocation for 80 to 90 percent of the basic salary as academic incentives. In addition, they also receive research allowance, 35%, and special allowance, 20%, of the basic salary. Pakistan also maintains a separate pay-scale phenomenally high, where a university assistant teacher gets monthly lowest Rs. 1,04,000 and highest Rs. 2,11,250, and a professor’s monthly salary ranges from lowest Rs. 2,34,000 to highest Rs. 4,05,600. In India, there doesn’t exist a separate pay-scale for university teachers, but after joining the university each teacher gets a number of allowances in addition to their basic salary and other fringe benefits. India runs a highly research-oriented national educational programme, and, therefore, immediately after joining the university, a university teacher receives a onetime grant for research ranging from Rs. Two lakh lowest to Rs. Five lakh highest.
The above comparative statistics provides an opportunity to realise how importantly is the higher education recognised by our neighbouring countries, and this is all the more reason that we pay heed to the demand for a separate pay-scale by the university teachers.
The present scandalised status offered in the proposed 8th national pay-scale shouldn’t be seen as done by some whimsical sleight of hand, but rather the formation of such a negative attitude towards university teachers has been the result of a long-grown pathetic scenario in this sector. Historical data will support this view that since long university education has been politicised along the party-line politics, which is different from politicising higher education along the ideological line, say, for example, the spirit of the Liberation War. Ideally, politics is a matter of ideology, which should impact an institution beyond the physical individual identity of the people who carry that ideology. But in reality that higher ideal is compromised by a distorted vision that an ideology is identifiable with the physical entity of the individual, in this case in the persona of the individual teacher.
Thus the abstract and intangible dimension of the ideology is wrongly deemed as expressible in the tangible form of an individual teacher. Thus in pursuit of spreading an ideology, university authorities, being also influenced by external political pressure, have recruited not teachers but party-political agents, and that in a large way by recruiting inferior applicants sacrificing the brighter ones. In some cases, nepotism and shady dealings have also resulted in inferior recruitment. In short, merit has been sacrificed to biased allegiances.
Now the compromise with merit can be digestible in other job sectors, perhaps, but never ever in higher education, where an inferior person recruited as a university teacher may cause harm to the institution for nearly as many as four decades. Teaching is an intellectual profession, and so its impact is both invisible and far reaching, but, which, unfortunately, is not always sensed by a university authority keen on recruiting a party political agent with inferior academic records rather than a suitable candidate fit to teach at the university level.
This practice being followed for decades together has created a negative impression about the quality of the university teachers in the greater society, where in numerous social transactions everybody, whoever he may be, comes to be tested for his real worth. Thus in numerous public forums university teachers have been seen to be less qualified than their official tags demanded. University professors have become cheaper by the dozen. Most of them become professors without any significant research publication in their chosen fields. The negative image has created a negative impact on the body of the people who fix the pay-structure of the nation. So university teachers have fallen into a vicious cycle. Compromised recruiting system, coupled with poor pay structure, has failed to allure the more brilliant students to university teaching, and being poorer for that other competing agencies, say the bureaucracy, have grown a false notion that a university teacher’s job is tantamount to ordinary office time keeping from 9 to 5.
This is where the pain resides, the failure by the competent bodies to realise the significance and relevance of higher education in a growing society that Bangladesh is. The failure also includes an incorrect (rather perverted) view that a nation can grow without higher education. Otherwise, why would the university teachers, the carriers of higher education, be falling into such ignoble fold?
If a separate pay-scale for the university teachers is not feasible at the moment, I suggest that they are paid a number of increments with their basic pay at the time of joining in any rung. Maybe, a lecturer should be given five increments, followed by an assistant professor to be paid six increments, an associate professor seven, a professor eight, and a vice-chancellor nine increments. Correspondingly, with their basic pay fixation, other allowances would be given on a percentage basis. Let’s see. . . .

The writer is Vice-Chancellor, Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University

Source:http://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/62405/On-university-teachersrsquo-demand-for-a-separate-payscale

President Obama praises South Korea for paying teachers as much as doctors

President Obama has praised South Korea’s policy of paying its teachers as much as doctors.

The US President was speaking at a High School in Oklahoma as he launched a new programme aimed at giving low-incomehouseholds broadband internet.

At the project launch at Durant High School he said: “Obviously, as President you travel around a lot, and you go to countries like South Korea where a higher percentage of the population has high-speed broadband- and, by the way, they pay their teachers the way they pay their doctors, and they consider education to be at the highest rung of the professions.

“Well, we will start falling behind those countries- which is unthinkable when we invented the stuff.”

It is not the first time that Obama has praised the nation's education system. In 2010, the politician also praised the length of the academic year in South Korea, compared to the US. He said: “We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day.

“That calendar might have once made sense, but today, it puts us at a competitive disadvantage. Our children spend over a month less in school than children in South Korea. That is no way to prepare them for a 21st-century economy.”

According to the education monitoring body ICEF: “South Korean students consistently rank at the top of the Programme for International Student Assessment survey results in reading, mathematics and science. South Korea is also one of the highest educated nations in the world.”

In addition to well funded state schools, Hagwons, or ‘cram schools’, are popular in South Korea as extra tuition for pupils outside of school hours on top of the taught curriculum.

Parents also spend around 22% of their household income on education and educational services in a bid to boost their children’s learning. It is one of highest proportions of household spend on education amongst developed nations.

The South Korean government recently imposed a 10pm curfew on ‘cramming schools’ amid concerns that some children were being made to study for too long each day. However, despite this campaigners worry that children are still being made to study in online ‘hagwons’ or that tutors are brought into children’s homes for the evening lessons instead.

After 85-year search, massless particle with promise for next-generation electronics discovered

Morgan Kelly

An international team led by Princeton University scientists has discovered an elusive massless particle theorized 85 years ago. The particle could give rise to faster and more efficient electronics because of its unusual ability to behave as

matter and antimatter inside a crystal, according to new research.

The researchers report in the journal Science July 16 the first observation of Weyl fermions, which, if applied to next-generation electronics, could allow for a nearly free and efficient flow of electricity in electronics, and thus greater power, especially for computers, the researchers suggest.

Proposed by the mathematician and physicist Hermann Weyl in 1929, Weyl fermions have been long sought by scientists because they have been regarded as possible building blocks of other subatomic particles, and are even more basic than the ubiquitous, negative-charge carrying electron (when electrons are moving inside a crystal). Their basic nature means that Weyl fermions could provide a much more stable and efficient transport of particles than electrons, which are the principle particle behind modern electronics. Unlike electrons, Weyl fermions are massless and possess a high degree of mobility; the particle's spin is both in the same direction as its motion — which is known as being right-handed — and in the opposite direction in which it moves, or left-handed.

"The physics of the Weyl fermion are so strange, there could be many things that arise from this particle that we're just not capable of imagining now," said corresponding author M. Zahid Hasan, a Princeton professor of physics who led the research team.

An international team led by Princeton University scientists has discovered Weyl fermions, elusive massless particles theorized 85 years ago that could give rise to faster and more efficient electronics because of their unusual ability to behave as matter and antimatter inside a crystal. The team included numerous researchers from Princeton's Department of Physics, including (from left to right) graduate students Ilya Belopolski and Daniel Sanchez; Guang Bian, a postdoctoral research associate; corresponding author M. Zahid Hasan, a Princeton professor of physics who led the research team; and associate research scholar Hao Zheng. (Photo by Danielle Alio, Office of Communications)

The researchers' find differs from the other particle discoveries in that the Weyl fermion can be reproduced and potentially applied, Hasan said. Typically, particles such as the famous Higgs boson are detected in the fleeting aftermath of particle collisions, he said. The Weyl fermion, however, was discovered inside a synthetic metallic crystal called tantalum arsenide that the Princeton researchers designed in collaboration with researchers at the Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter in Beijing and at National Taiwan University.

The Weyl fermion possesses two characteristics that could make its discovery a boon for future electronics, including the development of the highly prized field of efficient quantum computing, Hasan explained.

For a physicist, the Weyl fermions are most notable for behaving like a composite of monopole- and antimonopole-like particles when inside a crystal, Hasan said. This means that Weyl particles that have opposite magnetic-like charges can nonetheless move independently of one another with a high degree of mobility.

A detector image (top) signals the existence of Weyl fermions. The plus and minus signs note whether the particle's spin is in the same direction as its motion — which is known as being right-handed — or in the opposite direction in which it moves, or left-handed. This dual ability allows Weyl fermions to have high mobility. A schematic (bottom) shows how Weyl fermions also can behave like monopole and antimonopole particles when inside a crystal, meaning that they have opposite magnetic-like charges can nonetheless move independently of one another, which also allows for a high degree of mobility. (Image by Su-Yang Xu and M. Zahid Hasan, Princeton Department of Physics)

The researchers also found that Weyl fermions can be used to create massless electrons that move very quickly with no backscattering, wherein electrons are lost when they collide with an obstruction. In electronics, backscattering hinders efficiency and generates heat. Weyl electrons simply move through and around roadblocks, Hasan said.

"It's like they have their own GPS and steer themselves without scattering," Hasan said. "They will move and move only in one direction since they are either right-handed or left-handed and never come to an end because they just tunnel through. These are very fast electrons that behave like unidirectional light beams and can be used for new types of quantum computing."

Prior to the Science paper, Hasan and his co-authors published a report in the journal Nature Communications in June that theorized that Weyl fermions could exist in a tantalum arsenide crystal. Guided by that paper, the researchers used the Princeton Institute for the Science and Technology of Materials (PRISM) and Laboratory for Topological Quantum Matter and Spectroscopy in Princeton's Jadwin Hall to research and simulate dozens of crystal structures before seizing upon the asymmetrical tantalum arsenide crystal, which has a differently shaped top and bottom.

The crystals were then loaded into a two-story device known as a scanning tunneling spectromicroscope that is cooled to near absolute zero and suspended from the ceiling to prevent even atom-sized vibrations. The spectromicroscope determined if the crystal matched the theoretical specifications for hosting a Weyl fermion. "It told us if the crystal was the house of the particle," Hasan said.

The Princeton team took the crystals passing the spectromicroscope test to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California to be tested with high-energy accelerator-based photon beams. Once fired through the crystal, the beams' shape, size and direction indicated the presence of the long-elusive Weyl fermion.

First author Su-Yang Xu, a postdoctoral research associate in Princeton's Department of Physics, said that the work was unique for encompassing theory and experimentalism.

"The nature of this research and how it emerged is really different and more exciting than most of other work we have done before," Xu said. "Usually, theorists tell us that some compound might show some new or interesting properties, then we as experimentalists grow that sample and perform experiments to test the prediction. In this case, we came up with the theoretical prediction ourselves and then performed the experiments. This makes the final success even more exciting and satisfying than before."

In pursuing the elusive particle, the researchers had to pull from a number of disciplines, as well as just have faith in their quest and scientific instincts, Xu said.

"Solving this problem involved physics theory, chemistry, material science and, most importantly, intuition," he said. "This work really shows why research is so fascinating, because it involved both rational, logical thinking, and also sparks and inspiration."

Weyl, who worked at the Institute for Advanced Study, suggested his fermion as an alternative to the theory of relativity proposed by his colleague Albert Einstein. Although that application never panned out, the characteristics of his theoretical particle intrigued physicists for nearly a century, Hasan said. Actually observing the particle was a trying process — one ambitious experiment proposed colliding high-energy neutrinos to test if the Weyl fermion was produced in the aftermath, he said.

Hasan (pictured) and his research group researched and simulated dozens of crystal structures before finding the one suitable for holding Weyl fermions. Once fashioned, the crystals were loaded into this two-story device known as a scanning tunneling spectromicroscope to ensure that they matched theoretical specifications. Located in the Laboratory for Topological Quantum Matter and Spectroscopy in Princeton's Jadwin Hall, the spectromicroscope is cooled to near absolute zero and suspended from the ceiling to prevent even atom-sized vibrations. (Photo by Danielle Alio, Office of Communications)

The hunt for the Weyl fermion began in the earliest days of quantum theory when physicists first realized that their equations implied the existence of antimatter counterparts to commonly known particles such as electrons, Hasan said.

"People figured that although Weyl's theory was not applicable to relativity or neutrinos, it is the most basic form of fermion and had all other kinds of weird and beautiful properties that could be useful," he said.

"After more than 80 years, we found that this fermion was already there, waiting. It is the most basic building block of all electrons," he said. "It is exciting that we could finally make it come out following Weyl's 1929 theoretical recipe."

Ashvin Vishwanath, a professor of physics at the University of California-Berkeley who was not involved in the study, commented: "Professor Hasan's experiments report the observation of both the unusual properties in the bulk of the crystal as well as the exotic surface states that were theoretically predicted. While it is early to say what practical implications this discovery might have, it is worth noting that Weyl materials are direct 3-D electronic analogs of graphene, which is being seriously studied for potential applications."

The team included numerous researchers from Princeton's Department of Physics, including graduate students Ilya Belopolski, Nasser Alidoust and Daniel Sanchez; Guang Bian, a postdoctoral research associate; associate research scholar Hao Zheng; and Madhab Neupane, a Princeton postdoctoral research associate now at the Los Alamos National Laboratory; and Class of 2015 undergraduate Pavel Shibayev.

Other co-authors were Chenglong Zhang, Zhujun Yuan and Shuang Jia from Peking University; Raman Sankar and Fangcheng Chou from National Taiwan University; Guoqing Chang, Chi-Cheng Lee, Shin-Ming Huang, BaoKai Wang and Hsin Lin from the National University of Singapore; Jie Ma from Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and Arun Bansil from Northeastern University. Wang is also affiliated with Northeastern University, and Jia is affiliated with the Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter in Beijing.

The paper, "Discovery of Weyl fermions and topological Fermi arcs," was published online by Science on July 16. The work was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundations Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems (EPiQS) Initiative (grant no. GBMF4547); the Singapore National Research Foundation (grant no. NRF-NRFF2013-03); the National Basic Research Program of China(grant nos. 2013CB921901 and 2014CB239302); the U.S. Department of Energy (grant no. DE-FG-02-05ER462000); and the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (project no. 102-2119-M- 002-004).

Source:http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S43/64/59M11/index.xml?section=topstories

The dignity of the varsity dons in Bangladesh

Dr Rashid Askari

The distinguished Bengali author, Syed Mujtaba Ali wrote a short story named 'Padotika' (Footnote) where he painted a gloomy picture of how the teachers were living under most appalling conditions in British India. The abolition of the Toll and Maktab systems of education prevalent among the Hindus and the Muslims on the Subcontinent gave birth to East India Company's schools where the Bengali and Sanskrit knowing pundits were used to getting salaries lesser than that of a chaprasi (A junior office w
orker who carries messages). Mujtaba Ali's story features such a pundit whose monthly salary amounted to 25 taka in all by which he had to rear a family of eight members. On an occasion of the laat sahib's visit to the school, the pundit, humorously and poignantly gave an account of his meagre income by comparing it to the amount of money worth 75 taka that would have been spent monthly on the rearing of the laat sahib's three-footed pet dog. The aggrieved pundit showed by an arithmetical calculation that his salary, which he would spend on his Brahmin wife, the old mother, the three marriageable daughters, the widowed aunt, the maidservant and himself, was three times less than the amount spent on the three-footed dog and equal to that spent merely on its one foot.
I am feeling tempted to cite another example of salary discrimination in British India. Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose, on his return from London with BSC degree in 1885, joined the Calcutta Presidency College as a professor of physics. The salary of the Indian professors was then worth two third of that of the English professors. Since Bose had been serving on a temporary basis, his salary was only one third. However, in protest of this discrimination, he continued serving three years without any salary, and finally compelled the British government to make his job permanent and pay off all his dues. 
The British has quitted India. The Pakistanis too were compelled to quit. But the legacy of undermining the position of the teachers is still nagging at us. The whole nation, to its utter shock, witnessed how an assistant professor of a public college in Pirojpur was put over an assistant commissioner's knee for the former's alleged insubordination (9 April 2015). It was the teacher's fault that he had the impertinence to ask the magistrate, the Justice of the peace, his identity. The teacher is, however, senior to the magistrate by age and length of service. But nothing could save the poor teacher's dignity from the wrath of our bureaucratic gods who are always arrogant and high-handed in their dealings with people. The poor professor had to save his job by knelling in supplication.
The overbearing bureaucrats' arrogance knew no limits when the freedom fighter Ayub Khan, former commander of Satkania unit of Chittagong, committed suicide in a residential hotel in the capital after being insulted by the secretary of the Liberation War Affairs Ministry (7 July 2015). The deceased's handwritten suicide note may well authenticate the fact. What can be the bigger cost of the dignity of a freedom fighter?
We know for sure that nothing will happen to these mighty agents of bureaucracy held responsible for this couple of deliberate cruelties inflicted on the innocent people. They are the pampered children of the government. They grease the wheels of the state de facto. So, when it comes to bringing them to justice, the whole system would leap to their defence and justice would cry in the wilderness. They preserve every right to get preferential treatment from the state itself. They are the makers of things and hence the main beneficiaries of them. 
The proposed eighth pay scale is a shining example of strong bias towards the bureaucrats and against the varsity teachers. It has deprived the teachers to the nth degree. Even the status given to them in the 7th Pay Scale was way far better. The present scale has heavily downgraded the teachers' dignity because of the senior professors' exclusion from the secretarial grade. If remains unaltered, it is going to take heavy tolls on the varsity teachers in general. 
An independent pay structure for the public university teachers has been a long-standing demand in Bangladesh. The National Education Policy 2010 had recommended a separate pay scale for the teachers. The University Grants Commission, too, has recommended a 'lucrative salary structure' and other fringe benefits to attract outstanding students to teaching profession. The Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA) has long been pressing the government to increase the salary of university teachers at least to the level of that of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The education minister, Nurul Islam Nahid always seems to be taking a pro-teacher stance in regard to their salary and status. He has brought the issue to the notice of the president and prime minister and sent DO letters to all concerned including Cabinet secretary and public administration secretary. 
But there seems to be no clear light yet at the end of the tunnel. The 8th pay scale has been ready and waiting for implementation paying no heed to the university teachers' silent cry. The poor teachers are trying, by way of polite and non-violent campaign, to give fresh momentum to their just demand. They are looking forward to falling back on the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. Only she can bring hopes that the crisis can be resolved without resort to the unexpected. It calls for her intervention to restore the dignity of the varsity teachers. On numerous occasions, she has expressed her concern over them. Her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the leading promoter of our higher education and performed yeoman service for upholding the dignity of the public university teachers by introducing the 1973 Acts at all the universities during his tenure. His worthy successor, our present premier, Sheikh Hasina too has done a lot for the teaching community in general. It is she, who has extended the age of the university teachers' superannuation to 65. Her government has made a major breakthrough in all tires of education-from primary to tertiary. The free distribution of textbooks to more than 30 million schoolchildren on the first day the school year for the last several years has been unprecedented in the history of Bangladesh. Her government has remarkably increased the growth of literacy by creating fresh institutions and incentives. It has introduced, through UGC, the globally acclaimed Self-Assessment and Quality Assurance system to our public and private universities to make them centres of excellence and prepare them for international accreditation. This is going to be a big challenge for the government and mostly hinges on the restoring the university teachers' status, protecting their salary and, above all, saving them from bureaucratic domination. 
We keep our fingers crossed. We hope against hope that good sense must prevail upon hegemonic control. Our university teachers made supreme sacrifice for the creation of today's Bangladesh. Most of the martyred intellectuals of 1971 were erstwhile varsity dons. If properly taken care of, they now can greatly contribute to the making of the much coveted secular democratic Bangladesh free from militancy and fanaticism, and thereby can help her reach the Visions 2021 and 2041!r 
Dr Rashid Askari writes fiction and column, and teaches English literature at Kushtia Islamic University, Bangladesh. Email: rashidaskari65@yahoo.com

Source:http://www.observerbd.com/2015/07/12/99313.php