Primary teachers on indefinite strike

The indefinite strike called by primary teachers is going on to protest the police attack in Shahbagh and the implementation of three-point demands including class 10. As a result, teaching activities in more than 65,000 schools in the country are suspended. The primary teachers have started the strike from Sunday morning (November 9). They also said that they will continue their sit-in program at the Central Shaheed Minar.
Earlier, at a press conference organized at the Central Shaheed Minar around 6 pm on Saturday (November 8), Shamsuddin Masud, convener of the Primary Assistant Teachers’ Organization Oikya Parishad and central president of the Primary School Assistant Teachers’ Association, announced the indefinite strike.
He said, “From today, we will observe a full-day strike in all primary schools across the country to protest the implementation of the demands and the police attack.” At the same time, the sit-in program at Shaheed Minar will continue.’ This afternoon, many teachers were injured when the police fired sound grenades, teargas shells and rubber bullets during the ‘pen throwing’ program of teachers in Shahbagh in the capital. Shamsuddin Masud said that the police fired rubber bullets at the teachers, as a result of which more than a hundred teachers were injured. Many are undergoing treatment in the hospital.
After the incident, the teachers left the Shahbagh area and took shelter in the Dhaka University area. Eyewitnesses said that many fell ill due to the sound grenade explosion. The teachers’ three-point demands include – payment of salaries to class 10 assistant teachers, permanent solution to the complications of higher grades and assurance of 100% departmental promotion of assistant teachers.
According to the data of 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 3,84,000. As a result, teaching activities in these schools have been completely closed from today due to the strike. Earlier, on April 24 this year, the government took the initiative to increase the salaries of teachers from class 11 to 10 and from class 13 to 12. But this move led to the assistant teachers going on strike, alleging discrimination. Meanwhile, another section of assistant teachers under the banner of ‘Primary Assistant Teachers’ Organization Oikya Parishad’ has given the government a deadline of November 15. If their three demands are not met, the organization has announced a half-day strike on November 23 and 24, a full-day strike on November 25 and 26, and a sit-in in front of the Primary Education Department on November 27. They also said that if there is no visible progress by December 11, the teachers will boycott exams and go on a hunger strike until death.