Non-govt primary school teachers' strike begins
Classes at 24,000 non-government registered primary schools will remain suspended for five days as teachers launched a movement yesterday demanding nationalisation of their jobs.
Around 4.2 lakh students across the country are going to miss their classes till January 19.
Teachers of these schools, which represent 25 percent of the country's total primary educational institutions, locked up the classrooms yesterday and will continue with their strike today. They will also abstain from taking classes for three days from tomorrow but will take part in other activities.
National Non-Government (registered) Primary Teachers' Oikya Parishad, a platform of four organisations of non-governmental primary teachers, has launched the movement and announced its next course of action.
Parishad chairman Samsul Alam said they will submit a memorandum to all 345 members of parliament from January 20 to February 20. They would also submit a memorandum to the Speaker in parliament on March 14 and lay siege to the Prime Minister's Office on April 10, he added.
"There are more than 98,000 teachers working in around 24,000 non-government registered primary schools across the country and almost 90 percent of them observed the strike," Alam told The Daily Star.
These teachers enjoy basic salary equivalent to that of the government primary teachers but are not entitled to other allowances or facilities.
According to sources at Directorate of Primary Education, there are over 87,000 primary schools of different types in the country.
The agitating teachers under the same banner are demonstrating for their demand for the last few months. Their demonstrations got intensified after the primary and mass education minister in last September announced that the government won't nationalise their jobs.
In December last year, the teachers staged a sit-in at the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital.
They are aware that students' study will be hampered but they expect an announcement from the government in their favour soon, the teachers observed.
The government announced nationalisation of their jobs on many occasions but did not implement it, Samsul said, adding, "We will withdraw our programmes if the government meets our demands."
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