SM Mizanur Rahman :
An acceptable outcome regarding public university teachers’ demands is expected after the return of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina from New York.
“The government has attached highest importance to the teachers’ demand. All issues relating to the teachers’ demands have been discussed widely. The Prime Minister is very sympathetic to the teachers’ demands. I hope the problem will be resolved soon since a cabinet committee is working over the issue,” he told journalists after a meeting with public university teachers.
Prime Minister is scheduled to leave Dhaka for New York on September 23 to join the United Nations General Assembly UNGA and will stay there till October 1.
A one and half an hour meeting between Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid and the public university teachers was held at Education Minister’s Minto Road residence for an amicable solution to the demand for the separate salary structure on Saturday.
This was the first meeting between the teachers and the Education Minister since the beginning of the teachers’ movement.
A four-member delegation led by Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed, President of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association (FBUTA), took part in the meeting and placed their demands to the Education Minister.
FBUTA, Secretary General Prof ASM Maksud Kamal, Jahangirnagar University Teachers’ Association President Professor Khabir Uiddin and Teachers’ Association of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology President Professor Mohammad Ehsan were other members of the delegation.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid told the journalists that the government would consider the public university teachers’ demand shortly.
He said, the government has reconstituted the cabinet committee headed by Finance Minister Abul Mal Abdul Muhith for eliminating salary discriminations.
“Although there was no fruitful outcome in the Saturday’s meeting discussion will continue to find a way out. I hope that all the teachers will return home “with a smile on their faces,” Nurul Islam Nahid said.
Talking to reporters, FBUTA President Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed said their first and main demands is ‘a separate payscale’ for them.
“For revision of the 8th national pay scale and a separate salary structure for us, we will continue discussion and movement simultaneously,” he said.
He said that the minister had promised to us that he would place the demands to the committee formed recently to review the teachers’ pay structure.
Prof ASM Maksud Kamal, Secretary General of FBUTA said that they had informed the government about their problems.
“We have to take a firm stance if any solution doesn’t come through talks. We have told the Education Minister about a new commission by September 22 for a new pay structure,” he said.
Currently, the teachers are observing strikes and work abstentions every Sunday to press for their four-point demand.
The teachers of all 37 public universities under the banner of FBUTA had already abstained from work for three days since September 7, demanding revision of the 8th national pay scale and a separate salary structure for them.
During Thursday’s work abstention, federation leaders at Dhaka University threatened to launch a nonstop work stoppage after Eid holiday if the government did not sit with them.
They said that the post of selection grade professors (senior teachers) has been abolished in the new pay scale although bureaucrats have got a special grade for themselves.
They demand, among other things, that senior professors and senior secretaries should be given the same payment and other benefits.
There are over 13,000 teachers in the 37 public universities in the country. The teachers claimed that pay scale was “disgraceful and discriminatory” for them.
The government recently approved a new pay scale for civil servants with retrospective effect from July 2015.
