Teachers and employees of educational institutions that are not under the government’s monthly pay order or MPO scheme have postponed their protest programme for a month.
It comes three days after they started their sit-in outside the National Press Club in Dhaka demanding a meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to ask her to get their institutions enlisted in the MPO scheme.
They called off the protest on Sunday when Education Minister Dipu Moni met them and assured them of arranging a meeting with Hasina, the protesters said.
Dipu called them to her office at the Secretariat on Monday to discuss their demands in detail, Golam
Mahmudunnabi Dollar, president of the Federation of Teachers and Employees of Non-MPO Educational Institutions, told bdnews24.com.
The education minister did not specify when the meeting with Hasina will take place, he said.
The protests will resume if the meeting with Hasina is not arranged soon, the teachers’ leader said.
The education minister met the protesters near the Kadam Fountain around 3:30pm and sought one and a half months to arrange the meeting with Hasina.
The government does not lack the will to include more schools and colleges in the MPO scheme, Dipu Moni said.
The process to enlist the institutions, which applied online after completing four criteria set in the last term of the government, was at the final stages, according to the minister.
Teachers and employees of different educational institutions gather in front of the National Press Club for the second day to demand inclusion in the government’s monthly pay order, or MPO, scheme. Photo: Asif Mahmud Ove
“We maybe able to announce the enlistment within a month or one and a half months. You must give us the time. Please return home now,” the minister said.
The protesting teachers staged a month-long hunger strike in June-July last year. They ended the strike when Hasina assured them of taking quick steps to implement the scheme in line with the guidelines issued last year.
Two committees had been formed to take online applications, manage those and select the institutions following the guidelines, she said.
Under the MPO scheme, the government pays the basic salaries of teachers and employees of listed educational institutions following recommendations by MPs.
