Teachers of 210 schools unpaid since 2015

As many as 840 teachers of 210 nationalised government primary schools in Chattogram hill tracts (CHT) have remained unpaid since 2015, teacher representatives from the schools said yesterday at a press conference.

Urging the government to nationalise their jobs, the teacher representatives at the press conference, organised at Rangamati Reporters Unity, said they had been serving the schools where around 12,000 students are enrolled.

The teachers of the schools, operated by Khagrachhari, Rangamati and Bandarban zila parishads, received salary under a project financed by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) from 2008. 

Until UNDP stopped financing the project in 2015, three teachers including headteacher of each school used to be paid monthly salaries -- Tk 3,000 for each assistant teacher and Tk 5,000 for each headteacher, the teachers said at the conference.    

In 2017, the government in a gazette notification nationalised the schools. But the jobs of the teachers of the schools remained out of the umbrella of nationalisation, they added. 

Among others, Arun Kumar Tanchangya of Jamuchhara Govt Primary School and Prashanta Tripura of Alutila Govt Primary School spoke at the press conference.