Primary teachers announce continuous sit-in from Saturday

Government primary school assistant teachers have announced a continuous sit-in programme to press home their three-point demand, including pay in the 10th grade. The programme will begin on Saturday, November 8 at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka, organised by the alliance of four organisations under the banner Primary Teachers’ Demand Implementation Council. Newly appointed teachers will also join the programme.

The three demands of the assistant teachers are — fixing salaries in the 10th grade, resolving the issue of higher grades upon completion of 10 and 16 years of service, and ensuring 100 per cent departmental promotion.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday afternoon, Khayrun Nahar Lipi, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Primary Teachers’ Association (Shahin-Lipi), said, “Around 20,000 teachers will join the sit-in at Shaheed Minar on Saturday. The programme will continue until our demands are met.”

She added, “Officials from various departments, nurses, agricultural officers or police personnel with similar qualifications receive salaries under the 10th grade, whereas primary teachers are placed in the 13th grade. This is discriminatory.”

Talukdar Pias, a leader of newly appointed teachers, said, “Primary education is the foundation of the country. Those who build the future generation deserve fair dignity and an appropriate pay structure.”

Meanwhile, another group of primary teachers, under the banner of the Primary Assistant Teachers’ Association Unity Council, has given the government a deadline until November 15. They have announced that if their demands are not met, they will go on a work abstention in the last week of November and begin a hunger strike unto death from December.