The protesting assistant teachers of government primary schools have threatened to go on hunger strike from September 26 if their demands for pay rise and promotion are not met.
The assistant teachers under the banner of the Primary Assistant Teachers Association Unity Council issued the warning on Saturday at a rally held at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka city, said a press release from the council.
Their three-point demand includes upgrading the assistant teacher position at the entry level to the 11th grade from the existing 13th grade, removing the 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.
The teachers for long have been pressing for these demands.
Pressing their three-point demand, the primary school teachers enforced a work-abstention programme of different lengths from May 5 till May 29 this year.
Earlier on February 10, a consultation committee on quality improvement of primary and non-formal education recommended upgrading of the assistant teacher position at the entry level to the 12th grade.
Mentioning the recommendation, the protesting teachers at the Saturday rally said that no changes came in their grade in the past seven months since the recommendation had been made.
They mentioned that the salary scale of a head teacher would be Tk 16,000 at the 10th grade at first, which would be Tk 23,000 after 16 years with two timescales.
The salary scale of an assistant teacher would be Tk 11,000 at the 10th grade at first which would be Tk 12,500 after 16 years with two timescales, they said.
They termed their current salaries as discriminatory, demanding an immediate pay rise along with promotion.
If the government would not meet their demands by September 25 they would start a fast-onto-death programme from September 26 at the Central Shaheed Minar, they warned.
Most recently, the government on July 28 made the decision to upgrade the salaries of the head teachers of all government primary schools to the 10th grade. Before the decision, the trained head teachers were paid as per the 11th grade and the head teachers without training were paid as per the 12th grade.
