Bangladesh primary school teachers demand government nationalise schools

Wimal Perera

Hundreds of teachers and workers at non-government primary schools in Bangladesh are continuing their agitation to demand that the Awami League-led government nationalise their schools.

The protestors, who represent tens of thousands of non-government primary teachers at over 4,000 schools, are also calling for permanent jobs and enlistment in the official Monthly Pay Order (MPO) scheme. The MPO is a pay system for teachers in state-controlled public schools and government-approved institutions.

In 2013, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League-led government took over about 26,000 schools in the face of mass action by Bangladesh teachers. Four thousand private schools, however, were not included in the program.

There are many categories of educational institutes under non-MPO educational institutes. These include primary and secondary schools, colleges, technical and vocational institutions and Islamic-based madrasas. Teachers and employees at these schools depend on student tuition fees. An estimated 16,000 non-government school teachers do not receive regular salaries.

The non-government primary teachers began a sit-down demonstration outside the National Press Club in Dhaka on June 16. On July 3 they started a hunger strike. About 230 fell sick during the protest, including six from dengue fever, one of whom—a teacher from Faridpur—died on July 12. The teachers have told the media that they are determined to win their demands.

The government does not care “about our ordeals,” Rabindranath Barman, a primary teacher from Panchbibi, Jaipurhat, told the New Dawn newspaper. “We’re defying the rain, sun, dust, mosquitoes, and constant noise of vehicles… We can’t sleep properly and even we don’t have any bathrooms here,” he said.

Shipra Rani Dey from the Alamin Bazar primary school on Hatiya Island, about 160 kilometres from Dhaka, told New Dawn that she had been involved in the protest for 27 days with her toddler son. The Alamin Bazar school was established on the remote island in 2006 and has over 200 students.

Shipra explained that her husband was bedridden and that she was the only person working in her six-member family. She had worked for the last 13 years but not received a regular salary. “I won’t go home unless I get a positive message from the government,” she said.

Bangladesh non-government school teachers are organised in a range of different unions—the Non-government Primary School Teachers’ Association; the Non-MPO Educational Institutions Teachers’ and Employees’ Federation; and the Bangladesh Besarkari Prathamik Sikkhak Samity—to name just a few.