The minimum standard for the average teacher-student ratio in global higher education institutions is 1:20. That means there should be one teacher for every 20 students. Jagannath University(JnU) in the capital has 695 teachers as against 17,038 students in the university. In other words, there is one teacher for every 25 students. This information has come up in the latest published annual report of the University Grants Commission (UGC). A large number of teachers in different departments have been on education leave for a long time. If the teacher-student ratio is not right in the department, problems like session jam, not having proper class etc. are created. Which has a negative impact on the future life of the students.
According to the 47th report of the institute, a total of 36 departments and 2 institutes are conducting educational activities in Jagannath University. Of these, the Department of Management Studies lags far behind in the teacher-student ratio. Next in line is Accounting and Information Systems. The law and finance departments are jointly in the third position in terms of lagging behind in teacher-student ratio. Altogether 22 departments and one institute of the university have failed to maintain this standard.
According to the report, there are 1,067 students in the management department of this university. In contrast, only 24 teachers are engaged in teaching. As such, the average teacher-student ratio in this section is 1:44. Which is not even close to the standard of world-class teacher-student standards. The Department of Management is followed by the Department of Accounting and Information Systems. There are only 27 teachers in this department as against 1,107 students. This department has one teacher for 41 students. Besides, the law and finance department is in the third position in terms of lagging behind in teacher-student ratio. For every 39 students, there is one teacher in these two departments.
Other departments that do not have international standards in teacher-student ratio are: Bengali, English, History, Islamic Studies, Philosophy, Marketing, Statistics, Economics, Political Science, Social Work, Sociology, Mass Communication and Journalism, Public Administration, Film and Department of Television, Land Management and Law, Geography and Environment and Psychology. Besides, there is no international standard in teacher-student ratio in education and research institutes. The pharmacy department of this university is in the best position in the teacher-student ratio. There are 20 teachers as against 211 students in this department, that is, there is one teacher for every 11 students in this department.
To ensure the quality of education in the university, the President of the Teachers Association, Professor Abul Hossain said, as a university we must ensure the international standard of education. Therefore, there is no alternative to reduce the student-teacher ratio. We have already spoken to the Vice Chancellor of the University. We have a lot of housing narrowness, in which case I have decided to reduce the number of students instead of increasing the number of teachers. However, this is a long process, it will not be possible to solve it very quickly.
JnU Vice-Chancellor Professor Md Imdadul Haque said, many of our teachers are stuck in UGC. We are talking to UGC and for the time being we are asking them to give these appointments. Even then the ratio will decrease a lot. Will the number of student admissions be reduced or teacher recruitment be increased to ensure international standards in teacher-student ratio? To such a question, he said, Jagannath will follow his specific style. We have a syndicate, we have an academic council, I have nothing to decide on this alone. We will all decide in a meeting to ensure the international quality of our education.
In this regard, the Secretary of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Ferdous Zaman said that many departments have been opened in Jagannath University without any infrastructure. Some departments do not have adequate classrooms. We have not withheld any of their teacher appointments. We do not have adequate teacher exemption as we do not have the same infrastructure and standards for teacher exemption. In a few days the work of the new building of Jagannath University will be completed, then a lot of space will be added. When moving to a new campus, there will be no inequality in the teacher-student ratio. For the time being, it will be possible to overcome most of the problems by renovating the old infrastructures and increasing the space.
