DHAKA: The primary schoolteachers continued their indefinite hunger strike for third consecutive day on Monday (December 25) at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka.

They are observing the hunger strike unto death to press their demand for minimizing the salary difference between the head teachers and the assistant teachers.

The assistant teachers of state-run primary schools from across country began the hunger strike on Saturday morning (December 23). Thousands of teachers joined it.

Some 36 teachers have become ill till now. Some of them were hospitalized. Many other schoolteachers are also feeling unwell.

The hunger strike is being observed under the banner of the Bangladesh Primary Assistant Teachers Union. Bangladesh Primary Teachers Society, Bangladesh Primary School Teachers Association, Bangladesh Government Primary School Assistant Teachers Association and Primary School Assistant Teachers Forum are under the fold of the alliance.

Some tents were made there. However, many school teachers were seen lying or sitting on the Central Shaheed Minar premises under the open sky.

The primary teachers vowed to continue the strike until the salary discrimination ends. They urged the government to fulfill their demand immediately.

They sought Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s intervention to resolve the crisis. They hoped that the PM will realize their demand.

Leaders of the Bangladesh Primary Assistant Teachers Union urged the government to upgrade the salary scale of the assistant teachers to 11th grade from the 14th that would see the basic salary enhancement from Tk. 9,500 to Tk 12,500.

The government had upgraded the pay scale of assistant teachers to the 14th grade in 2015.

Currently, there are about 350,000 assistant primary teachers across the country.

According to the agitated teachers, there had been the difference of just a single grade between the salary structures of headmasters and assistant teachers in 1973. The difference was doubled in 2006, which jumped to a three-grade difference in 2015.

BDST: 1220 HRS, DEC 25, 2017
EHJ/SMS