Although vaccination of public university students has already begun, most of the students of the seven colleges affiliated with Dhaka University (DU) remained out of this inoculation due to various complications.
Due to age, NID and institutional complications, it is uncertain when these students will be vaccinated. They fear that if the jab is not confirmed soon, it will be too late to open the colleges. Therefore, the long session jam will be even longer. So, at the moment, they are expecting the urge of institutional management to ensure vaccination.
Students of these colleges said, public university students of almost all ages have been vaccinated but no confirmation has yet been given to them. In addition, they are not able to register for the vaccine in the 'Surokkha' app as they do not fulfil the age quota of 25 set by the government. Moreover, they are not given vaccines even if they go directly to the centres.
In this regard, Md Mahfuz, a third year student of Titumir College, told Bangladesh Post, "I have been stuck in the third year for almost two years on a long vacation in Corona. The longer it takes to get started, the more the session jam will increase."
He added, "A few days ago, we registered for the vaccine from the college website. But nothing has been reported since then."
Amena Akhter Shumel, a student of Government Bangla College, told Bangladesh Post, "Students of public universities are given priority in vaccinating, based on the information sent from the institution but we did not get them. It will be good for us if the vaccine for students under the age of 25 is ensured, coordinated with the Department of Health and the database collected from the college."
Nasima Hossain, professor of Bangla at Eden Women's College, told Bangladesh Post, "We have already told the students and collected information according to the department. Many students have been vaccinated at the local level in the mass vaccination campaign. Vaccines will be arranged once the university or college directs."
Meanwhile, Dhaka College Vice-Chancellor Prof ATM Moinul Hossain said that the names of the students have not been sent to any office for vaccination so far.
He recently told the media, "We have already completed the registration process to ensure that the students are vaccinated. The process has come to a standstill after the announcement of vaccination of 18-year-olds. Now that the age limit has been raised again, we must take institutional action."
Despite repeated attempts to find out about this, the coordinator of seven colleges and the principal of Dhaka College, Professor IK Selim Ullah Khandaker could not be contacted.
Earlier in July, as per the instructions of the Bangladesh University Grants Commission (UGC), work started to collect information from various public and private university students in the country to vaccinate university students against the coronavirus. In this process, seven colleges also collected information. However, even though a few students take the vaccine at their own initiative, there is an uncertainty as it is unclear when the vaccination will start officially.
