Univ teachers' protest unifies countrywide

Teachers of several public universities yesterday simultaneously formed human chains, demanding an immediate revision of the proposed eighth national payscale and a separate salary structure for them in the long run.

They said senior professors and senior secretaries must get the same salary, benefits, and official status. They called the proposed payscale "discriminatory" and "disgraceful" because it puts university teachers in a lower position in the hierarchy than secretary-level officials on all counts.

"We demand a revised payscale until a separate pay structure is created for us," Prof AJM Shafiul Alam Bhuiyan, chairman of the Department of Television and Film Studies at Dhaka University, told The Daily Star.

He joined a human chain at the base of Aparajeyo Bangla, along with Prof ABM Farouque, Prof AKM Gulam Rabbani, Prof Sheikh Abdus Salam, among others.

Dhaka University Teachers' Association (Duta) organised it as part of the countrywide protest of the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association.

Speaking at the programme, Duta General Secretary Prof ASM Maksud Kamal said they would strengthen protest if the demands were not met immediately.

"Almost all neighbouring countries like India and Pakistan have independent payscales for university teachers but our government doesn't recognise it," he said.

Duta President Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed said, "The position of teachers dropped two notches down in the proposed payscale...It's disgraceful for teachers."

He said Bangladesh could not bring its dream of becoming a middle-income country into reality if university teachers, the nation's backbone, were neglected.

 Human chains were also organised by the teachers' associations at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet), Jahangirnagar University, Chittagong University, and Begum Rokeya University, Rangpur.