What if students aspire to be teachers at their alma mater, the educational institution where they formerly studied? Many graduates have such an objective. It is typically deemed as an honour to be able to teach at the same institute where one spent years as a student.
Mahaboba Jesmin Ekra, an Economics student at Shahjalal University of Science and Technology (SUST) is also an executive at SUST Model United Nations Association (SUSTMUNA). She said, "It will be the greatest achievement of my life to have the responsibility of building students. Since I will not need much to time adjust to the environment, I will be able to utilise my time efficiently."
Ekra shared her thoughts when she heard that many academicians do not come back after their studies abroad and most of her classmates aim to settle in foreign countries. "I seek self-satisfaction that is not only in my benefit comprising of thousands of opportunities overseas. Instead, I would stay in my alma mater, where I am getting educating people," she added.
Another student from the same department, Fariha Akter Tithi, also fomented the dream of being a teacher at SUST. "Obviously, it will be a joyous feeling if I have the opportunity to be involved in sharing my attributes at SUST, where I have been a student for so long," she admitted.
Dr Md Jamal Uddin, professor of the Department of Statistics at SUST, dreamed of becoming a teacher at SUST before he got admitted there.
He was a teacher at a private university for six months. "While I was instructing at the university, I had to keep a close eye on whether I was upholding the authority's regulations. However, I've been at SUST for almost 22 years and feel like I'm at home," he recalls.
The tendency of students to become teachers has recently decreased for many reasons. "After pursuing higher studies abroad, when PhD holders compare benefits and assesses no better future opportunities in Bangladesh, many of them settle abroad," he added.
Those who have come back, don't they wish to stay abroad? After completing his PhD or postdoc, he could stay there. But, the desire to return to SUST got the better of him. "Going to the classroom and instructing the students in my mother language is one of the happiest moments of my teaching career," he expresses.
In the case of assistant professor of Economics at SUST, Tarik Aziz, the dream didn't start from the very beginning. He explained, "From the first year, I was interested in being a good student to safeguard the memento of the 'brilliant-student' found in school-college life." Good results and a strong passion for tutoring from the student-life later worked as a regulator to be a professor at his alma mater.
The eternal beauty of the 320 acres of the SUST campus constantly felicitated him and seems like a second home to him. He continued, "I am having a great chance to learn more as a colleague from all my teachers than I have learned in class." To him, the greatest achievement in this profession is the joy of being able to work independently.
Suraiya Begum Ruhi is a third-year student of Economics at SUST.
suraiya36@student.sust.edu