Nafees Khabir, a fourth semester student of Computer Science and Engineering at the East West University, and a protester against 7.5 per cent VAT on private university education tells Saad Hammadi how the recent protests this past week unfolded and their implications
SONY RAMANY
The imposition of value added tax on private university education has stirred a major movement across the city since September 8. Could you tell us how it unfolded?
The gathering started through social media groups of different university departments. Around 1:00pm, senior students of [East West University] were coming out of the university. Since we were supposed to pay our fees on Sunday [September 13], unless we protest this, we would have to pay the fees with VAT [Value Added Tax].
A group of students blocked the main road and were planning to block the other side. Soon, police appeared and asked us to leave the road. They put a barricade on us. We were chanting slogans demanding withdrawal of the VAT. The teachers and proctors came out too. Police were loading guns. Our proctor told the police that they were taking the students inside. But by then police and students entered into clash. At one stage a brick stone hit one of our senior students.
Police also started firing rubber bullets. We were running towards campus. Most had entered except a few. Our proctor came out again to request the police not to fire. But they also shot at our proctor. This flared protests further. It was initially 50 students who were out. But after our proctor was hurt, the clashes went berserk.
We did not swoop any attack on the police to prompt them to open fire. We were controlling the crowd ourselves.
We have heard that the protests since September 9 took vested interest of political quarters. Could you explain the motives of the groups or factions?
On the second day, [East West] university authorities asked us to withdraw protest because the management decided that they would not impose VAT on students’ fees. But still the protest did not break. Protesters demanded that VAT on education would have to be removed entirely and not only from students. The demand was further revised to remove all forms of VAT on all forms of education including school and college. With the change in demands we could sense that outsiders were taking part in the campaign. The initial campaign message stating ‘no VAT on education’ provided the premise to continue with protest.
Some student groups also said that media was distorting facts regarding the recent events. Could you tell us what the facts are and how they were being distorted?
Television channels were stating that students were causing public suffering. We blocked the road only adjacent to East West University and kept the crossings open. They were highlighting only vandalism and not our demands.
When we responded to queries from curious people about what was going on, they showed empathy to our demands. I remember a lady saying that the students were not doing anything wrong and her child too would someday study in university.
The protests took a collective form the day after it erupted at East West University. What was happening elsewhere?
Students of universities in Dhanmondi staged a sit-in procession demanding they would not move out of the streets unless the authorities assured them of lifting VAT. But there were external people engaging in the movement with the motive to break procession.
There were various influences working. A public university student put up status that some private university students getting hurt were lessons they deserved for stopping buses of public university students on the road. A group was working to create division between public and private university students.
Some universities have already applied the new VAT rules. The government is saying that university authorities would have to pay the VAT and not students. Does that give any assurance?
We demand that the VAT be lifted from education entirely. If VAT is imposed on education, eventually universities would realise the amount through various charges imposed on students. Some universities have said they would pay the VAT from their income without increasing fees of students. When constitution changes so many times, what is the guarantee that universities would not change their decision?
This is the first time such a large-scale protest from private university students erupted in the capital. How do you see the government’s role to empower the youth by applying 7.5 percent VAT on their education?
If the government is really utilising 7.5 percent VAT money on the development of youth as it claims, they need to be transparent to show how they are using it on us.
If the government imposes 7.5 percent VAT on education, there is no guarantee this would not be increased in the next budget. This would create an imbalance on the education system for the students. Rise in cost of education would only distance education from the youths.
A general notion is that private university education is expensive and some are doing simply business out of it. What is your impression?
We have a lot of unnecessary courses that we are compelled to study. After graduating from our disciplines, many of us struggle to find a decent job in our respective discipline. We do not have the quality that a job merits. In that sense universities are doing business.
In fact, eventually many of us have to take additional courses and skill-specific lessons after completing university. You do not want to enter into a job of 20,000 takas after spending 10 to 12 lakh takas. University is not able to deliver the quality of education that we require, otherwise why would we require training from outside?
When our trainers took their lessons from universities, we have to do them separately after universities.
We do not require studying Bangladesh Studies in Computer Science, a course that we have studied in schools and colleges. East West University keeps relatively lower fees compared to many universities, but there is no rational behind paying 7.5 percent VAT for courses that add no value to our knowledge. The government should pay attention on improving quality of education instead of taxing us.