Demand rings louder for MPO inclusion

After staging a sit-in for four straight days in front of Jatiya Press Club, teachers and employees of non-MPO educational institutions yesterday announced to begin a hunger strike unto death tomorrow, demanding enlistment under the government's Monthly Pay Order (MPO) facilities.

“We will go for the fast unto death from Sunday morning. It will continue until our demand is met,” said Binoy Bhushan Roy, one of the leaders of agitating teachers.

Under the banner of “Non-MPO Shikhya Pratishthan Shikhyak Karmachari Federation”, several hundred teachers from across the country started the sit-in on Tuesday, demanding inclusion of the approved educational institutions in the MPO scheme.

Thanks to a holiday, more teachers joined the sit-in yesterday.

Golam Mahmudunnabi, president of the federation, said all teachers and employees of the government registered non-MPO schools, colleges, madrasas and technical institutions will observe the hunger strike.

He said the teachers have long been observing various protest programmes in and outside Dhaka to press home their demand, but they only got assurance so far. This time, he said, they had no other option but to take this decision.

MPO is the government's share in the payroll of the non-government educational institutions. Under the scheme, the government gives 100 percent basic salaries to the teachers of non-government schools. The teachers also get a lump sum amount as other allowances through the MPO.

As per the rules, the educational institutions first come under MPO facilities and then the government enlists the teachers in the payroll.

According to the leaders of the federation, the number of non-MPO educational institutions is 5,242, where around 80,000 teachers are working without any pay, some for more than a decade.

This is because the institutions do not have the ability to pay the teachers while the government stopped bringing these institutions under its payroll for what they said due to a fund crunch.

After a suspension of six years by the then BNP-led alliance government, the Awami League-led government revived the MPO facility in 2010 as per its electoral pledge, enlisting 1,624 private secondary and higher secondary schools and colleges in the MPO scheme.

The rest of the non-MPO teachers have been organising various protest programmes since then.

Currently, more than four lakh teachers and employees of more than 26,340 secondary schools, colleges, madrasas and technical institutes are receiving MPO facilities.