Muhith apologises to public varsity teachers

Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith on Thursday offered apology for his comment about public university teachers staging demonstration to press for a separate pay scale. On Wednesday night, Bangladesh’s public university teachers had asked Muhith to offer public apology for what they said his ‘incoherent’ comment about their programmes. The Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA) warned the minister that he would be responsible for further consequences if he did not unconditionally apologised within the ‘next 24 hours’. Wednesday’s warning came a day after Muhith commented on the teachers’ abstention from work to push their demands, including abolishment of the selection grade in the new pay scale. University teachers have been demonstrating since last December after the Pay Commission proposed the eighth pay scale. The Cabinet on Monday approved the Eighth National Pay Scale with a basic pay ranging between Tk 8,250 and Tk 78,000. Public universities’ selection grade professors enjoyed the top grade along with secretaries and major generals in the Seventh National Pay Scale. Senior professors were included in grade-2 and professors in grade-3. However, the eighth pay scale does not separately mention the status of selection grade professors. Muhith on Tuesday had said the country’s most educated section was demonstrating for the “lack of knowledge” and that their work abstention had “no justification”.
“They don’t know what the pay scale has for them,” he further said. He went on alleging the universities promoted its teachers whenever it wished and dubbed it a “corrupt practice”. The teachers’ federation in a statement the same night dubbed his comments ‘rude’ and ‘uncalled for’. On Wednesday, the federation in another statement claimed the minister had ‘tarnished the government’s image’ on previous occasions with his ‘uncalled-for’, ‘rude’ and ‘funny’ comments, according to a news agency.
- biplab