Recommended primary school teachers, whose appointments were cancelled through a High Court order on February 6, on Wednesday called a 鈥楲ong March to Dhaka鈥� programme for today to press their one-point demand for ensuring their appointment.
The announcement came after they demonstrated in front of the Directorate of Primary Education at Mirpur in the capital Dhaka, where a huge number of police personnel was seen guarding the directorate gate at about 5:00pm.
The protesters first gathered in front the National Museum in the capital鈥檚 Shahbagh at about 11:00am on Wednesday and later went to the directorate where they took position for about three hours.
They requested the 6,531 assistant teachers, whose appointments were cancelled, from 21 districts of Dhaka and Chattogram to join the programme.
鈥榃e are calling all 6,531 teachers and their families to join us at Shahbagh on Thursday (today). We will not go back home without our appointments are ensured,鈥� said Mohib Bullah, one of the protesters.
Earlier on Monday, police used batons, water cannons and sound grenades to disperse the protesters, leaving some of them injured while police detained some protesters who were released later.
The protesters said that the recruitment process was conducted in three phases, with the first two phases completed and appointments made while no decision was made regarding the third phase, leaving thousands of assistant teachers in uncertainty.
The High Court on February 6 declared illegal and scrapped the November 20, 2024 appointment of 6,531 assistant teachers in government primary schools in Dhaka and Chattogram based on job quotas as per the 2019 recruitment rules.
The 2019 recruitment rules allow 60 per cent quota for women, 20 per cent for wards and 20 per cent for males in recruiting teachers for government primary schools.