Teachers warn ‘March to Jamuna’ protest on Thursday

MPO-registered teachers, staged a protest demanding increased housing, medical, and festival allowances, have warned that a ‘March to Jamuna’ protest on Thursday if their demands remains unmet.

MPO-registered teachers, demanding higher housing, medical, and festival allowances, have warned of a ‘March to Jamuna’ protest on Thursday if the government fails to meet their demands.

Today, the teachers staged a protest at Shahbagh Mor. The march, which began at the Central Shaheed Minar on Wednesday (October 15), disrupted traffic before concluding peacefully around 4:45pm.

Their demands include 20% housing allowance, medical allowance increase from BDT 500 to BDT 1,500, and festival allowance from 50% to 75% of basic salary.

Earlier, teachers launched the ‘March to Secretariat’ programme, but the police halted it in front of the High Court, forcing protesters to return to the Shaheed Minar. The following day, police used sound grenades and lathicharge to disperse teachers gathered outside the National Press Club. Since then, a strike has been ongoing across all private educational institutions nationwide.

Previously, the government raised the house rent allowance by BDT 500 on September 30, teachers rejected it and launched a movement. On October 6, the Education Ministry proposed increasing the allowance to BDT 2,000–3,000. Currently, teachers under the national pay scale receive BDT 1,500 house rent, BDT 500 medical allowance, and a festival allowance now raised from 25% to 50% of the basic salary.