The Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers Association (FBUTA) called for Finance Minister AMA Muhith’s resignation yesterday, as public university teachers observed yet another day of work abstention demanding their own separate pay scale.
The teachers said the anti-education minister was conspiring to create anarchy at the universities and destroy the country’s higher education system.
“Because of senility and anti-education mentality, our finance minister is continuously presenting irrelevant and fabricated information about university teachers and higher education system, thus confusing the whole nation,” said Farid Uddin Ahmed, president of the FBUTA.
“So we are calling for him to resign from his own post for the greater benefit of the country’s economy,” he told a press conference on the Dhaka University campus yesterday.
Reading out a written statement, FBUTA Secretary General Prof Maksud Kamal urged the government to form a new unbiased salary commission for teachers.
“If the government fails to meet our demands by September 17, the teachers would be forced to go for an indefinite work abstention after Eid-ul-Azha,” he said.
Teachers at public universities have been protesting the Eighth National Pay Scale since May 14, advocating a four-point charter of demands that includes the formation of a commission to initiate an independent pay scale for public university teachers.
As part of their movement, teachers of 37 public universities of the country observed work abstention programmes yesterday.
Teachers at Chittagong University, Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology and Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Science University abstained from work and staged sit-ins on their respective campuses.
Terming the eighth pay commission Chairman Dr Muhammad Farashuddin an enemy of university teachers, CU protesters said the former central bank governor was responsible for the unrest at public universities.
Meanwhile, teachers in Khulna University also observed work abstention, expressing their disappointment at not being given any chance to hold a discussion with the government on the pay scale issue.
Criticising the humiliation done to the teachers, protesting teachers of the Khulna University said meritorious students would not want to become teachers any more if the government fails to show respect to the profession.
Our district correspondents reported that work abstentions were also observed peacefully by teachers of Rangpur’s Begum Rokeya University, Noakhali Science and Technology University and Dinajpur’s Hajee Mohammad Danesh Science & Technology University.
Muhith’s response
Finance Minister Muhith has said public university teachers must meet with the government committee concerned to discuss reducing any discrimination in the new salary structure.
“We have to sit with them [public university teachers]. They have five or six grades. The [salary] pyramid might have become uneven at some points,” AMA Muhith said, commenting on alleged salary discrimination.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, who was accompanying Muhith at the time, also said: “What can we do if they [teachers] do not want to attend the government’s salary committee meeting?”
Earlier in the day, the FBUTA declared they would not sit with the government committee as the finance minister – who recently had to apologise for making derogatory comments about teachers – was heading the body.
Talking to reporters following a meeting in the city, Muhith assured that the status of professors would not be downgraded compared to government secretaries.
“We will look into how professors benefit from selection grades which were dropped by the cabinet according to the recommendation of the pay commission,” he added.
