Muktadesh Desk: Teachers of all government primary schools in the country have started an indefinite strike. They are observing this program to demand three points of demand, including the tenth grade, and to protest the police attack on Shahbagh. As a result, teaching activities in more than 65,000 schools are closed.
Earlier, on Saturday (November 8) morning, assistant teachers of government primary schools at the central Shaheed Minar in the capital started a continuous sit-in program demanding the tenth grade directly to end their long-standing deprivation.
In the afternoon, the police prevented the protesting primary teachers from marching towards Shahbagh. This led to clashes with the police. The police fired water cannons, sound grenades and tear shells to control the situation.
Later in the evening, the strike was announced by the ‘Primary Teachers’ Demand Implementation Council’, a front formed by four organizations of teachers.
Bangladesh Primary Teachers Association President Abul Kashem said, ‘The police have carried out a brutal attack on a peaceful program. And the coordinator of the Primary Teachers’ Demand Implementation Council Md. Mahbubur Rahman and 5 others have been detained.’
He further said, ‘Until the demands are implemented, the strike will continue in all government primary schools across the country for an indefinite period. The sit-in program at the Central Shaheed Minar will also continue.’
The teachers’ three-point demands include—
1️. Payment of salary to assistant teachers in the 10th grade.
- Permanent solution to the complications of higher grades.
3️. Guarantee of 100% departmental promotion for assistant teachers.
According to the Department of Primary Education, there are 65,567 government primary schools in the country and the number of teachers working in these schools is about 384,000. As a result, teaching activities in these schools have been completely stopped from today due to the strike.
