Hunger Strike Day 5: 44 more teachers fall sick

Forty four more teachers fell sick on the fifth day of their ongoing hunger strike in front of the capital's Jatiya Press Cub yesterday.

So far, 115 teachers among the demonstrators, demanding their inclusion in the government's Monthly Payment Order (MPO), have become ill.

Golam Mahmudunnabi, president of Non-MPO Shikhya Pratishthan Shikhyak Karmachari Federation, said 12 teachers were hospitalised.

“We will not withdraw our demonstration unless Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina declares a specific timeframe to draw up a solution,” he told The Daily Star.

He, however, said none from the authorities communicated with them yesterday.

About 80,000 teachers, currently employed in 5,242 government-recognised schools all over Bangladesh, are not under any pay scheme. They do not receive any payment, some for well over decades.

This is because the schools do not have the ability to pay the teachers, while the government stopped including the institutions for MPO due to a "fund crisis".

What was a demonstration of about 200 teachers in front of Jatiya Press Club for the last few days grew up to well around a thousand yesterday.

On Tuesday, the agitating teachers rejected the education minister's call to end the programme and announced to continue it until death. They vowed to continue the demonstration until the government gives a specific timeframe for meeting their demand.