Gulam Rabbani :
Teachers and non-teaching staff of many private schools and colleges are passing a tough time as the institutions are failing to pay their salaries following the prolonged closure due to the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic to overcome. Many of them have already changed their professions financial crisis.
Sources said, at least 10,000 private schools have remained shut for about 14 months. As a result, thousands of teachers have become unemployed.
Most of the private schools’ authorities operate their activities in rented houses. Many private schools have not been able to pay even their house rent and utility bills since the starting of the closure due to coronavirus pandemic. As a result, the owners were bound to close the schools.
The unseated teachers switched their profession, to become seasonal businessman, boatmen, vendors and day labourers. If this situation continues, the private education system will be in distress.
Mesbah Shemul, Vice Principal of New Nation Ideal School and College, said they had two campuses in Merul Badda and Aftabnagar areas in the capital city. But they had to leave one of their branches due to the shortage of income after the pandemic. More than 50 teachers and staff
members worked in the school before the pandemic, but now only five teachers are running it. The Vice Principal said most of their students were from low-income families and as a result most of them did not have the devices to attend online classes.
Around 550 students of the school are out of academic activities totally for more than 14 months, added the Principal.
Ikbal Bahar Chowdhury, President of the Bangladesh Kindergarten School and College Oikya Parishad, said, “There are about one crore students in private schools. If the private schools are closed totally the government will not be able to accommodate them in the other institutions. So the government should open the schools in accordance with the health guidelines.”
The teachers’ leader also said, “Not only the teachers but also the students of the private schools and colleges are passing day in uncertainty. Most of the students don’t have the device to attend an online class. As a result, many of the students are being dropped from the student life, many are being addicted to mobile phone and many female students are becoming the victims of child marriage.”
If public transport can be operated by seating one passenger in two seats, then we can also take classes by seating one student on one bench, added Ikbal Bahar.
Bangladesh Teachers Association President Nazrul Islam Rony said that the situation of more than five lakh non-MPO teachers of 39,000 secondary school’s, madrasas and technical institutions are more or less the same in this time of pandemic.
“In the absence of regular salaries, the teachers are living an inhuman life,” Rony said.
The government recently allocated Tk 46.63 crore for 81,000 non-MPO (monthly pay order) teachers and 25,000 employees of different educational institutions. Each teacher will get Tk 5,000 and each employee Tk 2,500 as a one-off measure.
But the amount is too meagre, compared with the number of teaching staff, to be able to reduce their hardship, according to teachers.
The government also does not have any immediate plan for these professionals – over 10 lakh teachers and employees in around 60,000 kindergartens, non-MPO private schools and colleges countrywide.
The Bangladesh Kindergarten School and College Oikya Parishad on 10 November urged the prime minister to reopen private educational institutions by maintaining health guidelines. It also demanded financial help for its teachers and staff in the interest of their survival.
But their appeals were unheeded so far. Recently students of the different schools, colleges and universities are demanding to reopen their institutions for classes and exams.
All educational institutions were closed since March 17 in 2020, and the government has now extended the closure until May 12. If the Covid-19 situation improves in Bangladesh, the government has taken a decision to reopen primary, secondary schools and colleges in the country from June 13, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni said recently while addressing a virtual press conference.
