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Public university teachers have recently generated some heat in an otherwise banal socio-political scene through their movement against the eighth national pay scale. What are their concerns? Do they want extra benefits?

The government has recently declared the eighth pay scale, raising the salary of public sector employees by 80 to 100 percent. Instead of being happy, public university teachers are upset. The eighth pay scale has 20-plus-two salary grades while the previous pay scale had 20 salary grades with a provision for allowances for the cabinet secretary and the principal secretary. There was no category called senior secretary. But on top of the regular grades, the eighth pay scale has two super-grades - one for the cabinet secretary/principal secretary/chiefs of the armed forces, and the other for senior secretaries. It also deleted the provisions for the salary grade called selection grade, and time scale for government employees. Only one fourth of the senior professors can avail this grade. To qualify for the selection grade, a university teacher has to serve at least five years as a professor. For example, a teacher at Dhaka University qualifies for the selection grade after serving 14 years as a professor. It is yet to be certain whether public universities will have the selection grade or not.

If universities continue to have the selection grade, the professors in the selection grade will draw salaries in the first grade. If the selection grade is omitted, the professors of the universities will remain in the fifth grade of the 22-grade pay scale.

But in all the previous pay scales, the professors in the selection grade drew salaries in the top grade along with the secretaries serving the bureaucracy. The creation of the two super grades in the new pay scale will allow the secretaries to surpass university professors in the salary structure. New entrants at both the bureaucracy and universities will begin at the same grade but only the members of the bureaucracy will have opportunities to end their careers at a higher grade than the teachers. Moreover, mid-level and senior bureaucrats receive many benefits, including chauffeur driven cars and car maintenance allowance, which a university teacher cannot even dream of. In recent years, young faculty members at universities are deprived of foreign study scholarships coming through government channels because these are obtained by early career bureaucrats. It cannot be denied that bureaucrats need professional and skills training to enhance their efficiency, but their efforts to seek additional academic degrees are hardly justifiable. While the university teachers are primarily on their own in terms of financing when it comes to pursuing higher degrees, early career bureaucrats have scholarships or handsome stipends available for pursuing Master's and PhD degrees. University teachers are also required to do research without any funds. Finally, university professors have humiliating positions in the warrant of precedence of the state. The vice-chancellor of a public university is placed on the 17th position while the professors are on the 22nd position. A secretary, having the same salary grade as a professor, is placed on the 16th position. All these discrepancies have infuriated teachers across public universities.

If these issues are not duly addressed, there will be serious academic and political consequences. Outstanding students will be demotivated to take up university teaching as their profession. No country can achieve sustainable socio-economic development by ignoring teachers and the education sector.

The discrepancy in the pay scale can be solved through adjustments. The selection grade professors can be placed on the same grade as senior secretaries while senior professors may be placed on grade one with secretaries; new professors can be placed on the third grade. Every professor should have the opportunity to climb up to the top grade of the pay scale by fulfilling certain criteria. Other teaching positions such as Associate Professor, Assistant Professor, and Lecturer, may be upgraded corresponding to the professors' positions. In many countries including India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, university professors earn way more than bureaucrats. This has been done either through the formulation of separate pay structures for university teachers or by giving special allowances.

A separate pay-scale for the university teachers is a better way to address the concerns of the teachers because teachers' job responsibilities are different from those of government employees. A separate pay scale can have provisions for academic and research allowances without affecting other employees. School and college teachers may be included in this pay scale in different categories of teachers. Finally, the warrant of precedence should be revised by upgrading the position of professors.

The government has recently reconstituted the committee which will address salary discrimination caused by the pay scale to review the concerns of university teachers. This committee should begin discussions with the teachers without any delay to maintain a peaceful atmosphere at universities.

It is also time for university teachers to be self-reflective of their teaching and research to improve the standard of their education institutes.

The writer is a Professor of Media Studies at the University of Dhaka. He can be contacted at abhuiyan@du.ac.bd.