Teachers unaware of benefits: Muhith

Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said university teachers were continuing their movement against "discriminatory provisions" in the eighth national pay scale without even knowing "what they are getting (from the pay scale)".

There is nothing to give as a solution to quell the movement and the teachers always take hasty decisions and might go hardline, he responded to journalists' queries at his secretariat office. 

The comments came a day after the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA) announced abstaining from work for an indefinite period from January 11 at all public universities.

Muhith said the finance ministry's November 1 gazette on the pay scale had nothing concerning university teachers and that the education ministry has not been able to resolve the issue despite being told to do so. In public service, there is a super grade for senior secretaries, at present numbering 10 among 2 lakh cadres, and in that ratio only one of the around 11,000 teachers can get that grade, he said.

Muhith said a process needed to be formulated to select teachers for the grade.

However, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid in a programme told journalists that the government was trying all out to meet the teachers' demands.

Teachers at different universities, as per their earlier decision, wore black badges while taking classes and would enforce a two-hour strike at universities from 11:00am on January 7.

Teachers of all 37 public universities under FBUTA, since May, have been stating that the 8th pay scale had downgraded their status.

They said the selection grade professors enjoyed the top grade along with secretaries and major generals in the seventh pay scale. Senior professors were placed in grade-2 and professors in grade-3.

The new pay scale retained the grades of professors and senior professors but did not separately mention the selection grade professors, one of the agitation's issues.