DHAKA: Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman Fizar has said that the activities to resolve salary discrimination of the primary schoolteachers will begin this week.

He said this while talking to journalists at his office at Bangladesh Secretariat on Tuesday (December 26), a day after the primary school’s assistant teachers called off their indefinite hunger strike.

The minister said that he will talk to Finance Minister AMA Muhith in this regard.

The primary schoolteachers ended their strike on Monday evening (December 25) upon assurance of the Primary and Mass Education Minister to meet their key demand.

The assistant teachers of state-run primary schools from across country began the hunger strike unto death on Saturday morning (December 23) at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka.

Thousands of teachers joined it demanding reducing the salary difference between the head teachers and the assistant teachers. About 50 teachers became ill during the strike.

The hunger strike was 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.

The teachers ended their strike at the third consecutive day on Monday by taking bread and drinking water and juice given by Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman Fizar.

Before ending of the strike, the delegates of the agitating schoolteachers joined a meeting with the minister at his official residence. The minister had assured of taking steps to reduce salary discrimination between the assistant teachers and head teachers of the primary schools.

The primary schoolteachers have been urging 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.

BDST: 1445 HRS, DEC 26, 2017
EHJ