Assistant teachers have announced a boycott of the annual examination in government primary schools across the country starting Monday, demanding, among three points, an increase in their job grade.
In the same vein, teachers of government secondary schools have announced a suspension of the annual examination citing four separate demands.
This announcement was made on Sunday during a sit-in programme in front of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education. Shamsuddin Masud, the convener of the “Primary Teachers Demand Implementation Council”, informed of the matter.
He told TIMES of Bangladesh that until the notification for the 11th grade in the job is issued, teachers of government primary schools will observe a full-day work abstention. They will not conduct any classes or examinations during this time.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Government Secondary Teachers’ Association has announced a work abstention with four demands, including the inclusion of the assistant teacher post in government secondary schools into the BCS cadre.
A statement from the Bangladesh Government Secondary Teachers’ Association said that the annual examination in secondary schools began on 24 November. However, as teachers are going on work abstention from Monday with their four demands, the ongoing annual examination will remain suspended.
If the demands are met, examination activities will be conducted on holidays. At the same time, the results will be published within December.
The other three demands of the secondary school teachers are expedition the appointment of teachers in vacant posts and implementation of promotions, issuance of the order for the implementation of the overdue time scale and selection grade, and the publishing of a gazette notification reinstating the advance increased salary-benefits for assistant teachers, including a minimum of two increments.
Meanwhile, amid the primary teachers’ work abstention, the Directorate of Primary Education has sent a letter to the District Education Officers instructing them to conduct examinations starting Monday. The letter even warned that action would be taken according to the rules if any irregularity is found in conducting the annual exam.
Regarding this, the protest convener said, “Nothing called the third ‘shamoyik’ examination is held in primary schools. What does exist is the third ‘prantik’ exam, which is supposed to be held from Monday, which we are boycotting.”
“From Monday, teachers will go to their respective schools and observe work abstention by not participating in any teaching or examination activities,” he added. “Teachers will resume regular teaching and conduct examinations only when visible progress is made towards fulfilling the demands.”
There are over 384,000 teachers in a total of 65,569 government primary schools across the country. Among them, nearly 350,000 are assistant teachers. They have been demanding for a some time to have their job grade upgraded from grade 13 to grade 11.
Prior to this, they held a sit-in programme in the capital from 8 to 12 November.
