Assistant teachers of the government primary schools will begin a countrywide full-day work abstention from Monday, demanding upgrading the entry-level pay scale and promotion.
The protesting teachers under the banner of Primary Assistant Teachers Association Unity Council have threatened to continue their protest programme until their three-point demand are met.
Their demands are upgrading the assistant teacher position at the entry level at all government primary schools to the 11th grade from the existing 13th grade, removing the existing barriers to achieving higher grade for the teachers who are 10 years and 16 years into the job, and making provision that all head teachers will be appointed from the pool of assistant teachers through promotion.
With the demands, a countrywide half-day work abstention programme by the teachers ended on Sunday.
Earlier, under the unity council, the teachers announced a series of programmes to press their demands.
As per their announced programme, the teachers staged one-hour work abstention between May 5 and 15, two-hour work abstention between May 16 and 20 and half-day work abstention between May 21 and 25.
In the capital Dhaka, the teachers did not observe the work abstention programmes strictly while in some districts these were observed duly.
In a press release issued on Sunday, the unity council on Sunday said that as their demands went unheeded, they would start the full-day work abstention across the country from today.
The teachers alleged that since 2019 their promotion had remained halted due to bureaucratic red tape.
They said that as per the service rules governing the primary schoolteachers, they were supposed to get promotion after 10 years and 16 years into the job.
Currently, the government appoints 35 per cent of primary school head teachers through the Bangladesh Public Service Commission, while the rest 65 per cent of the positions are filled by promoting assistant teachers, they said.
They demanded 100 per cent of the head-teacher positions be filled by promoting assistant teachers.
On September 30, 2024, the interim government formed a nine-member consultation committee on quality improvement of primary and non-formal education, tasking it with giving recommendations on quality improvement.
The committee submitted its report to chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus on February 10, recommending upgrading the entry-level salary of primary school assistant teachers to the 12th grade from the current 13th grade. It also recommended an upgrade of the head teacher鈥檚 salary to the 10th grade from current 11th grade.
Currently, primary school assistant teachers start job at the 13th grade, while head teachers get paid as per the 11th grade.
According to the Annual Primary School Census 2023, the number of government primary schools in the country is 65,567 and the number of assistant teachers in these schools is 3,19,625.
