Bangladesh’s public university teachers go for agitation

Teachers of all 37 public universities will observe a daylong work abstention programme today to press for a four-point demand, including salary with due dignity in the eighth national pay scale and a separate wage structure.

"No classes and examinations will be held in any university," said Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed, president of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA), a platform of teachers of all 37 state-run universities.

The cabinet yesterday approved a new pay scale for civil servants with minimum basic salary of Tk 8,250 and maximum of Tk 78,000 per month.

The new pay scale kept their grades as proposed in the draft.

Prof Farid, who teaches economics at Dhaka University, said they had expected a separate pay scale for the teachers as the government approved the new pay scale.

"But that did not happen," he told The Daily Star.

Prof Farid further said they would hold a protest rally and bring out a procession on all campuses today.

He also said they would go for a movement for an indefinite period if their demands were not met.

Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said the cabinet committee was asked to sit with the teachers and get their proposal before informing it to the government.

The teachers have been waging a movement since May 14 and observed work abstention on different occasions after the secretary-level committee submitted a review report on the pay commission's proposal.

They rejected the proposed structure, terming it "disgraceful and discriminatory".

They said the proposed pay scale had deprived and devalued university teachers as it created two special levels for "senior secretary and secretary" putting them two levels above teachers.

They demanded that the government should keep the same salary, allowances and other benefits of senior secretaries for senior teachers.

Similarly, professors should enjoy the status, salary, allowances and other benefits of the secretaries, they added.

They believe their position in the warrant of precedence was not duly placed and demanded either due respect or exclusion from it.

According to the warrant of precedence, the position of a secretary is 16th and the position of a senior professor is 19th although they get the same grade. Even the position of a vice-chancellor is 17th.

The teachers met the education minister and the chairman of the University Grants Commission and placed their demands.

Contacted, DU Vice-chancellor Prof AAMS Arefin Siddique said salary, allowances and other facilities of teachers at all levels should increase in order to build a properly educated nation.

Talking to The Daily Star, he expressed the hope that there would be a qualitative change in education if teachers' salary and other allowances increased.

He said there should have been a separate pay scale for Dhaka University teachers as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wanted to give a special status to this university on August 15, 1975, the day he was supposed to attend the convocation.