A group of admission seeker students under the 2020-21 academic session have staged a demonstration demanding reinstatement of the existing Grade Point Average (GPA) system in Dhaka University's intake test.
They came up with the demand on Monday at a protest rally in TSC area of the university campus under the banner of "General students under 2020-21 academic session."
From the protest they give a 48-hour ultimatum to reinstate the previous GPA system, otherwise, they warned to go for tougher movements like a hunger strike.
Later, they approached the Vice-chancellor and Proctor of DU for placing a memorandum in this regard but they failed to meet any of them.
Abu Huraira Tanjim, a student from GovtTolaram College Narayanganj joined the protest said, "The decision of reshuffling GPA system is completely inhumane. We are already done with our preparations. The university administration should inform us about this change at least six months earlier."
We did not get the opportunity to sit for the HSC exam this year due to the pandemic situation. The govt imposed auto-pass have created major sufferings for many students as the lower GPA in HSC was not expected for us. Meanwhile, DU authorities have increased the required GPA to apply for the university, Tanjim added.
It may be mentioned that, students applying from the science group are required to have a minimum SSC and HSC combined GPA of 8.5 this year. Applicants from the arts and business studies groups require a combined GPA of 8, while those applying for fine arts will need 7.
Previously, DU was used to allow students from science faculty with a minimum SSC and HSC GPA of 8 while applicants from Business Studies and Arts faculty with a combined GPA of 7.5 and 7.
But due to auto pass, a total of 1,61,807 students achieved GPA 5, the maximum grade point average, in Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) and equivalent results for 2020, over 3 times more than that of the previous year. Therefore, DU authorities have decided to increase the combined required GPA for this year only to sit for the entrance test.