Secondary school teachers call hunger strike

After staging a daylong sit-in yesterday, a section of secondary school teachers who were recruited under a project for three years, announced to go for an indefinite hunger strike demanding the government immediately fulfil its pledge of making their jobs permanent.

The strike will start at 12:00 noon today in front of Jatiya Press Club in the capital, the additional class teachers (ACT) declared from a sit-in that continued till filing of this report around 10:00pm.

Under the banner of Additional Class Teachers Association, several hundred teachers from different schools across the country took part in the protest with banners and posters.

Several hundred teachers organise a sit-in programme in front of the Jatiya press Club in Dhaka on Monday, October 22, 2018. Photo: Amran Hossain

The government in 2015 recruited a total of 5,200 teachers as ACT under the World Bank-funded project titled “Education Quality and Access Enhancement Project (SEQAEP)” to increase math, science and English skills among secondary school students.

The project ended on December 31 last year. Before and after completion of the project, several government officials, including education ministry secretary, assured them that their jobs would be made permanent, the teachers said yesterday.

Although their payment remained halted after completion of the project, they continued teaching following the assurance, in hopes that their current jobs would become permanent.

Koushik Chandra Bormon, president of the association, said they submitted necessary documents to the education ministry in August this year.

“The ministry assured us to make a decision to make our job permanent within seven days after the submission [of the documents]. Many days have passed, but we are yet to get any solution,” he said.

“Many of us didn't search for other jobs. Most of us have already crossed the age-limit [30 years] to apply for government jobs. Now, we have nowhere to go,” added Koushik.

“We are going through a financial crisis. We humbly request the government to publish a gazette for making our jobs permanent soon,” he said.

Mahi Uddin, joint secretary of the association, said a few of them managed to take other jobs, and currently around 4,500 of the ACT teachers are still teaching at the schools.

“We helped enhance the country's education quality. Instead of being thanked, we are being deprived. The government could tell us 10 months ago that our jobs wouldn't be made permanent. Why did they give us hope?” said Mahi.

At one stage during the protest, police asked the teachers to leave the spot as they were “not given permission” for the demonstration. As the teachers denied to leave, policemen took away some of their banners.