Lack of basic facilities such as a computer lab, science lab, seminar room, separate common rooms and toilets for girls has badly affected the 700 students enrolled in Chittagong University’s (CU) Institute of Education and Research (IER). The students complained that they had to depend on the varsity’s Laboratory School and College seminar room for seminars. Moreover, they were forced to go a long way to the science faculty to attend practical classes. The worst affected are female students who are forced to share toilets with their male counterparts and teachers.

“It is a shame that there are only two toilets for male and female students and teachers and those too are in a dismal state. We need separate toilets urgently to spare female students from embarrassment,” said Jannatul Naima, a student of Sanskrit department. “We also need a separate common room for the girls,” she added. Himel, a master’s student of IER, said, “There are widespread problems in our Institute. We have some subjects that are related to computer science. For that, we need a computer lab as soon as possible.”

“We also need a separate seminar room immediately. Now, we have to depend on the Laboratory School and College seminar room to hold seminars,” he added.

IER director Shahensha admitted to the problems. “Actually, these problems started when the authorities allocated our ground floor for the CU branch of Bangladesh National Cadet Corps (BNCC). We have already talked to the university authorities about these issues,” he said.

CU vice chancellor Prof Dr Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury told The Independent that around 250 students from IER had staged a demonstration and boycotted classes on July 12 last year to demand the upgrading of facilities.

“At that time, I had assured them to redress their grievances. As per the assurance, a building is being constructed for the Arts faculty. We hope most of the problems will be resolved once the new building comes up,” the VC said. “But we need more time to solve all the problems of the institute,” he added.

CU authorities had set up IER in 2012 with around 130 students and some teachers. Now, the number of students has risen to around 700, but the institute has seen no corresponding improvement in infrastructure.