Nahid assurance fails to woo teachers
Non-MPO teachers continue hunger strike
STAFF REPORTER
The word of the education minister has not been enough to persuade the teachers, who are staging an indefinite hunger strike from Sunday, to withdraw their protest. The teachers want assurance from none other than the Prime Minister and the specific date on which their demand will be met.
Education minister Nurul Islam Nahid yesterday promised to fulfil the demand of the teachers for the inclusion of their educational institutes under the monthly pay order (MPO) facilities.
The teachers, on the third day of their indefinite hunger strike yesterday, said they want a specific date when their schools will actually be included under the governments MPO ( monthly payment order) scheme. They threatened to continue their strike until they get an assurance from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina that their issue will be resolved.
The education minister met the teachers, who were lying on the pavement and the road in front of the Jatiya Press Club, in the morning. He explained that the inclusion of teachers under the MPO system does not solely depend on his ministry. Instead, his ministry has to depend on the finance ministry for the budget.
We are concerned about your problem. Over the last few days, we have been communicating with the
finance ministry regarding your problem. After a lot of effort, we have got the consent of finance minister AMA Muhith. Steps will be taken for the inclusion of your schools under the MPO facilities. But for that, a policy is needed. That will need time, he explained.
But the agitating teachers were not happy with the announcement. They started shouting for a specific date, but the minister could not give any.
Nahid said: I thought you would be happy with my word, as I have got the consent of the finance minister. I could not have come to you empty-handed. Now that I have got the assurance of the finance minister, I have come to break the news to you.
But the teachers were not convinced. Finally, Nahid left along with the other senior officials of the education ministry.
General secretary of the Non-MPO Institutions Teachers and Employees Federation, Binoy Bhushan Roy, who was lying on the street, stood up and announced: We reject the assurance of the education minister. He has made such promises on previous occasions, but they were never fulfilled. He could not give us any specific date this time either. We will continue our hunger strike until the assurance comes from the prime minister.
Hundreds of teachers and employees have been on hunger strike for three days. Before that, they started a sit-in programme on December 26. Around 75,000 teachers and employees of 5,242 educational institutes are out of the purview of MPO facilities right now, sources said.
Owing to the hunger strike, many of the teachers have fallen sick and at least 20 of them have been hospitalised. Some of the teachers have had to be put on a saline drip. Many of the teachers have become demoralised.
However, the teachers said they will not withdraw their strike until their demand is met. Some teachers said they felt sorry that they could not be with their students when the results of the junior school certificate exams were out. They could not even take part in the book distribution festival on the first day of the year.
The government brought 1,624 educational institutions under the purview of the MPO system in 2010. Since then, the process has stopped as a huge amount of money is needed to give the facility to all the schools.
