NCA students boycott classes

National College of Arts (NCA) witnessed one of its history’s worst days with students boycotting classes, clashing with each other and abusing teachers and college administration on Monday. Sources said that some teachers of the Architecture and Fine Arts departments, whose contract had not been extended by the Board of Governors, motivated students to protest for their teaching contracts’ extension.
Dozens of Architecture Department students created panic in the college, forcing other students to boycott classes and threatened some teachers not to take classes. They chanted slogans against college administration and clashed with students who were not in support of boycotting classes. The students also raised slogans against NCA Principal Bashir Ahmad and accused him of not “accommodating” the said teachers.
An NCA faculty member, seeking anonymity, said the term of all the four teachers had expired and it was beyond principal’s control to extend their contract on his own. “The matter had to be decided by the high-ups and not the principal. The prime minister of Pakistan himself chairs Board of Governors. If someone has a problem over some issue, he should go to the relevant authorities instead of creating panic in the college,” he maintained. He said some students were concerned after the appointment of the current principal, as allegedly he was appointed by BOG after sidelining some senior teachers, and Monday’s protest was basically against the college’s principal.
A female student said that NCA has its own culture and it is an exemplary institution but today it seems that it is the third class institutions as such protests happens in that instituion. She said that the students here not protest or boycott classes or threat teachers but today whatever is happening is the aggression of students against dishonesty.
A female seeing the protests said that I am a former NCA graduate and my daughter is studying there. I cannot even think of students misbehaving with teachers at NCA and even locking gates so that students don’t go out. This is simply intolerable and ridiculous. This practice must be stopped otherwise this prestigious institute will get defamed all over the world,” said father of a female students who had come to take her daughter at college.
A female NCA student, talking to Pakistan Today, said, “I have never seen such a protest in NCA and it was a revolutionary day in the history of NCA.” She said few students went in the classes and asked their teachers not to take lecture as they were boycotting the classes against college administration. If someone wanted to boycott or miss classes, he should do it without forcing others, she added.
A male NCA student, who was leading the protest, said they were protesting because their teachers were illegally fired and that too in the middle of the session. “How can new teachers be recruited quickly cater to our needs. A lot of work has to be done as already due to dengue our studies have suffered. We didn’t want to create a scene but we had to do so because nobody was listening to us,” he said.
A senior official, when asked about the event, confirmed the incident and said the administration would take serious note of the situation and would not allow any disturbance on campus.