Staff Reporter :
The teachers and the employees of non-MPO educational institutions, who have been demonstrating for enlistment under the government’s Monthly Payment Order (MPO) facilities, started fast unto death on Sunday.
About 200 teachers started the strike in front of Jatiya Press Club around 9am.
On Tuesday, they started the sit-in programme at the same place under the banner of “non-MPO Shikhya Pratishthan Shikhyak Karmachari Federation and continued for five days.”
On Saturday, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid urged them to end their agitation for returning to their institutions.
The teachers have vowed to continue their demonstrations rejecting the education minister’s call to end their agitation.
Golam Mahmudunnabi Dollar, Acting President of Federation of Non-MPO Educational Institutions’ Teachers and Employees, said, “We suspended our programme getting assurances. Now, we will not leave the streets without our demands being met.”
He also said if the non-MPO institutions are not brought under MPO, most of those will gradually be shut down – spelling disaster for the country’s intermediate and secondary level education.
Professor Binoy Bhushon Roy, General Secretary of the organization, said: “We are heading towards an uncertain future. The salaries of the civil servants have doubled, but nothing has been done for us. Until our demands are met, we will not leave the streets no matter what.”
MPO is the government’s share in the payroll of the non-government educational institutions. Under the scheme, the government gives 100 percent basic salaries to the teachers of non-government schools. The teachers also get a lump sum amount as other allowances from the MPO.
As per rules, the educational institutions first come under MPO facilities and then the government enlists the teachers in the payroll.
According to the leaders of the federation, the number of non-MPO educational institutions is 5,242, where about 80,000 teachers are working without any pay, some for more than a decade.
This is because the schools do not have the ability to pay the teachers while the government stopped enlisting the institutions for MPO due to “fund crisis”.
After a suspension of six years by the then BNP-led alliance government, the Awami League-led government revived the MPO facilities in 2010, as per its electoral pledge, and enlisting 1,624 private secondary and higher secondary schools and colleges in the MPO scheme.
The rest of the non-MPO teachers have been staging various protests since then.
Currently, more than four lakh teachers and employees of over 26,340 secondary schools, colleges, madrasas, and technical institutes are receiving MPO facilities.
The teachers and the employees of non-MPO educational institutions, who have been demonstrating for enlistment under the government’s Monthly Payment Order (MPO) facilities, started fast unto death on Sunday.
About 200 teachers started the strike in front of Jatiya Press Club around 9am.
On Tuesday, they started the sit-in programme at the same place under the banner of “non-MPO Shikhya Pratishthan Shikhyak Karmachari Federation and continued for five days.”
On Saturday, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid urged them to end their agitation for returning to their institutions.
The teachers have vowed to continue their demonstrations rejecting the education minister’s call to end their agitation.
Golam Mahmudunnabi Dollar, Acting President of Federation of Non-MPO Educational Institutions’ Teachers and Employees, said, “We suspended our programme getting assurances. Now, we will not leave the streets without our demands being met.”
He also said if the non-MPO institutions are not brought under MPO, most of those will gradually be shut down – spelling disaster for the country’s intermediate and secondary level education.
Professor Binoy Bhushon Roy, General Secretary of the organization, said: “We are heading towards an uncertain future. The salaries of the civil servants have doubled, but nothing has been done for us. Until our demands are met, we will not leave the streets no matter what.”
MPO is the government’s share in the payroll of the non-government educational institutions. Under the scheme, the government gives 100 percent basic salaries to the teachers of non-government schools. The teachers also get a lump sum amount as other allowances from the MPO.
As per rules, the educational institutions first come under MPO facilities and then the government enlists the teachers in the payroll.
According to the leaders of the federation, the number of non-MPO educational institutions is 5,242, where about 80,000 teachers are working without any pay, some for more than a decade.
This is because the schools do not have the ability to pay the teachers while the government stopped enlisting the institutions for MPO due to “fund crisis”.
After a suspension of six years by the then BNP-led alliance government, the Awami League-led government revived the MPO facilities in 2010, as per its electoral pledge, and enlisting 1,624 private secondary and higher secondary schools and colleges in the MPO scheme.
The rest of the non-MPO teachers have been staging various protests since then.
Currently, more than four lakh teachers and employees of over 26,340 secondary schools, colleges, madrasas, and technical institutes are receiving MPO facilities.
