Public university teachers have said they will continue the movement until their demand for a separate pay scale is met, and in that case, the upcoming admission examinations may get hampered.
Yesterday, the teachers of all the public universities across the country jointly observed their scheduled work abstention programmes on their respective campuses for the third day running.
In many universities, they also observed sit-ins, protesting what they say is discrimination between them and bureaucrats in the eighth pay scale that the cabinet approved last week.
Although they are not taking classes or attending their administrative duties, the teachers are carrying out their scheduled exam duties. Teachers of public universities get special allowances on top of their salaries for attending exam duties.
In the seventh pay scale, a senior professor was equivalent to secretary, but in the new pay scale, a senior professor is treated as an additional secretary of a ministry, which teachers say is outright degradation.
The protesters were outraged by a recent comment by Finance Minister AMA Muhith who said teachers’ movement was a result of ignorance about the pay scale.
Although the minister had officially apologised for his comment later, but the teachers have not stopped their demo and have also rejected a pay scale reform committee under Muhith’s leadership.
The committee was formed on Wednesday and tasked with sitting with the public university teachers to find a solution.
Addressing a sit-in on the Dhaka University campus yesterday, Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed, president of the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Associations (FBUTA), said: “We will not come back from the movement until we get success.
He also said that if their demands were not met, the admission process of the public universities might get delayed, reports our DU correspondent Arif Ahmed.
Dhaka University’s undergrad entrance examinations are scheduled for the month of October. Most of the other public universities across the country will also hold their respective admission tests in the next couple of months.
Meanwhile, our Rajshahi Correspondent Nazim Mridha reports that teachers of the Rajshahi University (RU) and the Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology (Ruet) yesterday observed full-day work abstention. They only attended their exam duties.
Teachers of both the universities also observed separate three-hour sit-ins on their campuses from 10am to 1pm.
Similar programmes were also observed on the campuses of the Chittagong University (CU) and the Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (Cuet) yesterday.
However, the sit-in programme at CU was just two hours long because the university went into the Eid-ul-Azha vacations on Wednesday, reports our CU Correspondent FM Mizanur Rahman.
