Strike ends at request of Minister

Staff Correspondent: The assistant teachers of the state-run primary schools demanding upgrade of their salary scale ended their indefinite hunger strike upon assurance of the Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman to meet their demand.

The minister himself served water and juice to the teachers on Monday evening so that they could end their strike.

Earlier, the teachers took a decision to withdraw the strike after a meeting with the Minister at his official residence as he assured of taking steps to reduce salary disparity between the assistant teachers and head teachers of the primary schools.

During the meeting Mostafizur told reporters, “They (teacher leaders) called off their movement on my assurance. I told them I’ll talk to the Finance Minister over their salary scale. I urged them to suspend the movement and continue talks."

Over 1,000 assistant teachers of several primary schools across the country thronged the Central Shaheed Minar from Saturday morning (December 23) under the banner of the Primary Assistant Teachers Grand Alliance asking the government to fulfill their demand.

The leaders of the alliance urged the government to upgrade the salary scale of the assistant teachers to 11th grade from the 14th that would see the basic salary enhancement from Tk. 9,500 to Tk 12,500.

The agitated teachers argued if the headmasters get salary under the 10th grade, the assistant teachers deserve the 11th grade. The government should reduce the discrimination by accepting the assistant teachers' demand, they pleaded.

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Pry teachers call off hunger strike


risingbd/Dhaka/Dec 25, 2017/Yeamin/AI