Dhaka, 28 Jan – The teachers and employees under the banner of Non-Government Education Nationalisation Liaison Forum has threatened to boycott the duties of the upcoming Secondary School Certificate (SSC) examinations on February 1 if the their demand is not met.Around five lakh teachers and employees of around 27,000 educational institutions from school, colleges, Madrasas and technical are continuing their movement for the fulfilling their demand for nationalisation of their educational intuitions which are under the Monthly Pay Order (MPO) facilities.
The teachers and employees are continuing their non-stop hunger strike for 16 days and earlier they staged sit-in programme from January 10 to 14 in front of the Jatiya Press Club. Hundreds of teachers and employees have been passing their night under open sky amid the winter season.
The leaders of the Forum said they did not get any fruitful response from the education ministry. Now they want the intervention of the prime minister Sheikh Hasina in this regard.
The activities of the SSC examinations would be hampered if this huge number of teachers and employees don’t attend the duties, Forum convenor Abdul Khaleque told The Independent yesterday.
“I personally don’t want to boycott duties of SSC examinations. Such decision would hamper the examinations. But the government should also think of our just demand,” he added.
He said they would discuss the next course of action when the SSC examinations are near.
Nazmul Islam Rony, joint-convenor of Non-Government Education Nationalisation Liaison Forum said, “We still did not get any concrete response from the government. The state minister for education Kazi Keramat Ali sat with us and told us that there is no budget now to meet our demand.”
“We cannot return home in this way. We want the assurance of the prime minister. We want to tell the prime minister that quality education cannot be ensured when there is discrimination between government teachers and our teachers,” he added.
“We don’t want to make the SSC examinee captives to realise our demand. But if our demands are not met, we would go for indefinite strike. Then the teachers would boycott the duties of the examinations which would hamper the total system,” he said.
He further said, “We have a meeting in the evening today (Sunday) to fix the next course of action.”
On the other hand, several thousands of teachers of non-government primary school are carrying out their hunger strike programme for two days. Earlier they staged sit-in programmes for six days in front of the Jatiya Press Club. They demanded for nationalisation of their institutions but did not get any response so far.
“We still did not get any response of the government. We are seeking the intervention of prime minister Sheikh Hasina,” Mamunur Rashid Khokon, president of Bangladesh Non-Government Primary Teachers Association told The Independent.
He also said that they want to go back to their institutions after getting the assurance because the lingering of their programme would hamper the education of the students. – Staff Reporter
