Students on Saturday protested against the current minimum age for entering government jobs, set at 30, and demanded that it be raised to 35 in front of the National Press Club.
President of Bangladesh General Students Council, Imtiaz Hossain, said that with the surge in session jams in public academic institutions, it is taking longer to graduate.
The average age of completing undergraduate studies is currently at 23, so adding twelve year grace period and making it 35 is logical,Imtiaz added.
Sanjay Kumar Das, general secretary of the council, said that a proposal regarding raising the bar was raised during the 9th national parliament, but did not progress further. Sabuj Bhuiyan, a member, said that he had found in a recent statistic that the average time lost for session jams in the last five years was 3.2 years.
In light of this, he urged the government to consider raising the minimum age bar. Other member students also spoke during the occasion.
Our Sylhet correspondent adds students from various public and private universities and colleges also formed a human chain demanding extension of the current age limit for entering government job to 35 year.
District unit Bangladesh Sadharan Chhatra Parishad hosted the human chain programme at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) campus at around 11:30am along with SUST, Leading University, Metropolitan University and Sylhet International University students. Speakers said a regular student becomes around 28-year-old when s/he finishes university education. But almost all the universities and colleges in the country fail to discharge students in due time.