Primary teachers go on hunger strike demanding pay-scale upgrade

The State-run Primary Assistant Teachers Grand Alliance has begun a hunger strike at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka, urging the government to reduce wage gap between trained head teachers and trained assistant teachers. Thousands of assistant teachers from around the country gathered at the Shaheed Minar premises for the hunger strike at around 10am, vowing to continue until their demand was met. The hunger strike is being observed under the banner of the Primary Assistant Teachers Grand Alliance — a combination of the Bangladesh Primary Teachers Society, Bangladesh Primary School Teachers Association, Bangladesh Government Primary School Assistant Teachers Association and Primary School Assistant Teachers Forum. The leaders of the Grand Alliance urged the government to upgrade assistant teachers to the 11th grade, with a basic salary of Tk 12,500. Currently, they are placed in the 14th grade, with a basic salary of Tk9,500. There are about 350,000 assistant primary teachers across Bangladesh. Bangladesh Primary Assistant Teachers Foundation President Shahinur Akhter said that if the headmasters of the schools receive salaries under the 10th grade, then assistant teachers deserve to be paid under the 11th grade. “We will continue our strike until death if the authorities concerned do not pay heed to our demand,” she added. Bangladesh Primary Teachers Society President Shahinur Al Amin hoped that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would intervene to resolve the crisis. “We were forced to take a hard line stance as our fortune remained unchanged despite forming human chains, giving memorandums and holding meetings with ministers in the past,” added Shahinur. Earlier on December 9, the teachers had threatened to fast-until-death if their status was not upgraded from the 14th grade to 11th grade in the eighth national pay scale, by December 22. The government had upgraded the pay scale of assistant teachers to the 14th grade in 2015.