Primary school headmasters threaten strike

After teachers of public universities and government colleges, now headmasters of primary schools threatened agitation protesting the new pay scale. At a press briefing on Sunday, the Bangladesh Government Primary School Headmasters’ Association (BGPHA) announced that they will go for a non-stop 'no-work' work from Oct 6, if they are not included in the tenth grade of the 8th National Pay Scale. They also demanded gazette notification declaring primary school headmasters as Class-II government officials.
 
“All primary schools in Bangladesh will abstain from work between 9am and 12pm from Oct 3 to Oct 5, if our demands are not met by Sep 30,” BGPHA Convener Reaz Parvez told the media on Sunday. He warned of a non-stop 'no-work' at schools from Oct 6 if their demands are not met. “We will then have to boycott duties for the Primary School Certificate exams scheduled for November.”
 
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had announced the promotion of government primary school headmasters to second-class gazetted officials on Mar 9 last year. The primary and mass education ministry issued an order the same day with revised pay scale for the teachers. But they are not getting paid according to that scale and the public administration ministry is yet to clear the matter.
 
Parvez said they had been put on the Tk 6,400 salary scale as Class-II government officials, but are yet to be paid according to that scale. “There are complexities over the teachers’ pay in the new scale as there was no separate gazette notification for them,” he said, according to bdnews24.com.
- biplab