World Teachers’ Day was observed in Bangladesh on Saturday as elsewhere across the world.
To mark the day, different programmes were held across the country demanding elimination of discrimination against the teachers.
This year the day was observed with the theme of ‘valuing teacher voices: towards a new social contract for education’ to celebrate all teachers around the globe.
The education ministry on the day organised a discussion at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital marking the day, said a press release issued by the ministry.
Addressing the discussion as chief guest, the interim government’s adviser to education ministry Wahiduddin Mahmud said that he felt guilty for not providing immediate solutions to many problems in the sector.
‘The teachers in the country, especially the teachers of the non-government secondary level, are the most neglected and deprived people compared to any other country like ours,’ he said, adding, ‘It is almost impossible for these teachers to live with respect with poor salary.’
About the free textbooks for the next year, he mentioned that some things were not included in the textbooks due to shortage of time which would be included in future.Â
The adviser added that the government started addressing the problems in the sector while changes would need time.
The discussion was chaired by the Secondary and Higher Education Division senior secretary, Sheikh Abdur Rashid, while adviser to primary and mass education ministry Bidhan Ranjan Roy Poddar, University Grants Commission chair professor SMA Faiz and UNESCO Dhaka Office head and its representative Susan Vize attended the event as special guests.
With the demand for nationalisation of the education system for eradicating discrimination between government and non-government education sectors, Bangladesh Teachers’ Association and Bangladesh College-University Teachers’ Association jointly held a discussion on the day.
The discussion was held marking the day at the head office of Bangladesh Teachers’ Association in the capital, said a press release issued by the association.
The leaders of the associations protested at government’s inaction for not implementing a previous promise of meeting the teachers’ demand for nationalisation of education.
They also said that since independence of the country the state never considered giving appropriate dignity and rights to the teachers for sustainable and qualitative development of education.
For the sake of all stakeholders in the sector, the demand for nationalisation of education is timely and necessary, they said.
The teachers also urged the government to reappoint the teachers who were recently being forced to resign from different educational institutions.
The discussion was attended by Bangladesh Teachers’ Association president Md Bazlur Rahman Miah and general secretary Mohammad Kawser Ali Sheikh and Bangladesh College-University Teachers’ Association acting president Khorshed Alam Bhuiyan and acting general secretary Akmol Hossain.
Both of the associations also observed the day in different districts through different events.
The secondary-level teachers staged a sit-in protest in the capital for 22 straight days from July 11, 2023 and went on a countrywide strike for 17 consecutive days from July 16, 2023 demanding nationalisation of their jobs which included Tk 16,000 as an entry-level basic salary, Tk 1,500 as a medical allowance, 100 per cent of the basic salary as a festival allowance, and 45 per cent of the basic salary as house rents.
Later, they called off their strike after then Awami League-led government assured them of meeting their demands.