Milestone School and College experienced quite an unexpected and unfathomable tragic incident, the first of its kind in Bangladesh. However, our response to that pathetic incident did not seem rational.
On 22 July, just after the day of the Milestone incident two advisors namely law and education were detained for 9 hours by the students who could not come to the main road and then again, their security men took them back to the college where they had to remain for 9 hours and finally, they were rescued by security men through an alternative way.
The students from adjacent areas also joined with the students of Milestone to create anarchy. We witnessed chase and counter-chase with the members of law enforcement agencies, and the unruly situation engulfed the entire area of Uttara.
The unruly mob and students demanded the resignation of the law and education advisors, meaning the advisors ordered or advised the pilot to fly and then to drop it on the Milestone Campus. It also means they did not take any action against the pilot. They could save all the students, but they deliberately did not do it! Strange!
Quite strange, such a type of protest against the two advisors! Why would they be attacked, blamed and mentally tortured? This is in no way the response at the time of a national calamity! If this type of incident repeats, like Milestone tragedy, no responsible person will dare to go there!
Along with students, many people started rebuking, attacking, and castigating the founder principal of the Milestone college, Colonel Nurun Nabi, on social media, in newspapers, and other electronic media. Some of the people even called him a ‘mafia’ of Uttara.
This is another strange comment! Mafia means a dishonest business tycoon who illegally does everything and nurtures groups of mastans and armed men to torture people and ransack their money and wealth, and many more such types of activities.
But I know Colonel Nuran Nabi, my principal at Rajuk Uttara Model College when I worked there as a teacher. I know him to be a builder of young minds or a maker of successful human beings. He knows how to nurture young students into an effective workforce like a real educator and nurse.
He was the principal of Jheniadah Cadet College, Faujderhat Cadet College and the founder principal of Rajuk Uttara Model College. He is a capable and worthy educator under the garb of a military uniform.
I saw many educationists, civilian principals, and armed forces officers, but who cares about motivating the students, teachers, and guardians like Colonel Nabi? Motivating the students and colleagues is the prime duty of any institutional head. He did it and will continue doing it as the founder of Rajuk and Milestone.
Every week, he called an assembly where he talked to the students for a long time about how they would change their lives and learn things by looking at nature. He gave examples of flowers in front of Rajuk College.
Why were those flowers so attractive, good-looking and big? Because they were nurtured properly. Similarly, students must go under the nursing system at Rajuk College. He also motivated the students to be admitted to BUET and DU or go abroad after graduating from Rajuk College.
He warned the students not to get admission in infamous institutions. If anybody did it, that would be like beating his head with shoes. Education Secretary was and still is the Chairman of the governing body of Rajuk College. He used to teach the young colleagues how to receive a VIP like secretary and the importance and position of a secretary in state affairs.
I think this is the part of learning that many officials lack. Col. Nabi does a morning walk daily, even on days with rainfall and natural calamities. He takes an umbrella with him, walks, and asks us to do the same, so he is still fit for work at his old age.
He criticised and warned the teachers who were engaged in commercial private tuition. This is the person in the uniform who is presented properly to establish model educational institutions in the private sector in the country.
We know private educational institutions work far better in the country, as we see the examples from government primary schools, high schools and colleges where poor quality teaching and management exist. But Colonel Nabi has set an example of how students of all categories can be accommodated in an institution, make them pass, and give quality teaching.
Establishing and running a model institution in the country is difficult. It needs a proper area, land, approval, location, and support from the people and the state. Interestingly, each factor faces huge obstacles when you want to build and run an institution. He could manage land at Uttara, so the institution was established there.
That does not mean he willingly did it, even though he had many options. So, why do people call him ‘mafia’? Just try to understand him, his way of work, his philosophy. He is a true educator of the country! I have seen him as a successful education administrator!
Our flower-like children lost their lives instantly in the tragic incident. Nobody thought of it even in imagination. Children were crying, languishing in the hospital, and their parents and relatives were crying.
Strangely, against all these, many unruly students gathered in front of the secretariat and forcibly entered there and vandalised many cars. What’s the relation or correlation between the tragic incident of Milestone and vandalising cars in the secretariat? Who instigated them to do it? Strange! Absolutely strange activities we witnessed!
The students and others should have been busy with taking the children to hospitals, consoling their parents and relatives, being ready to offer blood and collect blood from others and visiting the victims’ houses. Without doing these, several groups resorted to attacking and throwing filthy words towards the advisors and creating anarchy in different parts of Dhaka and even many parts of the country.
As humble citizens of the country, we may ask the Ministry of Defence and Bangladesh Air Force why such a practice occurred in Dhaka instead of a safe zone? Again, what kind of fighter planes do we use that frequently meet accidents?
Here, the law and education advisor don’t have anything to do. Do our students need to know it? Students’ conduct, behaviour and movement must be rational and make sense. They are the country’s future leaders, and they made the July Mass Uprising, a significant historical event, possible.
They cannot afford to make what we witnessed just after the Milestone tragedy. Again, removing the teachers, principals, VCs, and head teachers by students proves another form of unruly activities. Just after the mass uprising, these unruly incidents began taking place in different corners of the country and still in some areas.
That might be called a sad chapter! Students made a supreme sacrifice, and many more have become crippled during the mass uprising movement. In the face of this reality, when another group of students show the behaviour and activities, we become afraid of not implementing the noble objectives of this historical movement that students made last year.
The reason why students entered the secretariat, vandalised cars, and created anarchy in the entire area might be due to the late declaration of the postponement of the HSC examination, the day after the Milestone tragedy.
However, the Milestone incident occurred in a particular educational institution that does not sound reasonable enough to postpone the exams for the entire country. However, the incident touched the whole nation.
Still, the authorities postponed the HSC exam because of adjusting dates and managing other sensitive matters relating to the examination, which calls for time and consideration.
That could not satisfy some students who took to the streets and entered the secretariat as they studied all night, but the postponement declaration came late at night. No study goes in vain. Their study did not go in vain. However, their response to the situation cannot be said to be reasonable or student-like.
Finally, we see a group of people trying to find fault with the interim government for any anomalies in the country and want immediate solutions to those anomalies and problems that have developed over the past few years. Once again, the functions and objectives of this government do not necessarily mean to give quick solutions to the problems heaped over the years. Let us understand that fact and behave accordingly.
About the Author
Masum Billah works as a President of the English Teachers' Association of Bangladesh (ETAB), Dhaka, Bangladesh. He previously worked as an Education Specialist at BRAC, an international NGO in Bangladesh.