Nahid to consider univ teachers' demands
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday assured taking into consideration demands of teachers of the country's 37 public universities over the proposed 8th national pay scale.
“The prime minister is abroad. I will talk to her on her return. If necessary, I will take you along with me to the meeting,” he said at his secretariat office.
It was there around 3:00pm that a 15-member delegation of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Associations (FBUTA) submitted a memorandum containing a four-point demand, including a separate pay scale for the teachers.
A secretary-level committee last month submitted a review report on the pay commission's proposed scale.
Rejecting and terming it “disgraceful and discriminatory”, the teachers embarked on a protest, observing a two-hour work abstention on June 8 and announcing submitting the memorandum at different ministries.
In the memorandum, the teachers said the scale deprived and devalued them by creating two special levels putting “senior secretary and secretary” two levels above them.
Till now, senior professors, especially those who got the selection grade, have been enjoying the same salaries as secretaries, it said.
If the special level is kept for senior secretaries, the same salary, allowance and other benefits have to be provided to senior teachers. “Similarly, professors will enjoy the status, salaries, allowances and other benefits enjoyed by the secretaries,” the delegation said.
The salary of associate professors, assistant professors and lecturers will have to be fixed in that order, said Prof Maksud, Dhaka University Teachers' Association general secretary.
FBUTA President Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed said the government should keep its Vision-2021 promise to provide them a separate pay structure.
He said, “The teachers should either be duly respected or completely excluded from the warrant of precedence. We will not say anything if we are excluded.”
Nahid said the issue had put him in a quagmire.
“It is not the government's final decision. The finance and public administration ministries are reviewing the matter,” he said, urging not to launch any movement. He assured informing President Abdul Hamid, chancellor of all universities.
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