Staff Reporter :The teachers of country’s public universities on Thursday observed full day work abstention demanding review of the new pay scale and a separate pay structure for them. They warned of tougher movement to press home their demands.The teachers rejected the cabinet committee, which has been reformed to review the recently approved Eighth National Pay Scale for public university teachers, with Finance Minister AMA Muhith as its convener. The university teachers said that they wouldn’t sit with AMA Muhith to discuss the issue. “We can’t expect fair and neutral judgment from the Finance Minister,” said Prof ASM Maksud Kamal, Secretary General of the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers’ Association (FBUTA).The teachers further said that they wouldn’t also sit with Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, alleging that he is working against the teachers. “We will also not sit with the Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid. None of the government has come to us yet to take any effective step regarding the issue,” Prof Maksud said. The government reformed the cabinet committee on Wednesday keeping AMA Muhith as its convener. A gazette notification was issued in this regard, which said that the committee would also sit with the teachers to go over their complaints in order to find solutions. According the gazette notification, other members of the committee are ministers for industries, commerce, education and law, minister or state minister for public administration, and state ministers for finance and planning ministries.This committee will make recommendations after reviewing unresolved issues and allegations of discrimination in the pay scale.As part of the ongoing movement, the teachers observed work abstention at all the 37 public universities in the country. They observed the programme from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and staged sit-in from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.The teachers of Dhaka University staged their two-hour sit-in programme at the foot of the Aporajeyo Bangla on the campus. “We will continue our movement until our demands are met,” said Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed, President of the FBUTA. He said that yesterday’s programme on the third day of their three-day work abstention.About Finance Minister, he said that the teachers had been demanding withdrawal of AMA Muhith from the review committee as his remark about the teachers’ movement upset them.He observed that if the recommendations made by the Eighth National Pay Commission are implemented, university teachers will not only lose their prestige, the whole teaching profession will lose its dignity.The government formed the original committee shortly after it cleared the 8th pay scale on Sept 7, which prompted public university teachers to launch their protest demonstration around the country.They have been protesting since May 14, advocating a four-point charter of demands that includes the formation of a commission to initiate an independent pay scale for them.Not only the public university teachers, but also a number of government employees including primary and secondary school teachers have been protesting the new pay scale as well.Meanwhile, the head teachers of the government primary schools have threatened of boycotting the Primary School Certificate (PSC) examinations if their demands regarding a separate pay scale, selection grade and time scale are ignored.
