Non-govt teachers want separate pay scale

Speakers at a roundtable yesterday called on the government to introducing a separate pay scale for non-government teachers in order to improve quality education by attracting meritorious individuals in the teaching profession.

The caretaker government should also allow teachers of non-government high schools, colleges and madrasas to participate in the upcoming local government elections, they added.

National Front of Teachers and Employees (NFTE), a platform of eleven teachers' organisations, organised the roundtable on 'Education, National Budget and Ban on Teachers' Participation in Local Government Election' at the National Press Club in the city.

The speakers criticised the government for allocating inadequate funds in the education sector, breaking all the previous records.

Chief Coordinator of NFTE Prof Quazi Farruque Ahmed said the government allocates less than Tk 112 crore in the education sector against the last fiscal year.

“Traditionally, education sector gets priority in the budget. Last year the allocation for education sector was 14.19 percent of the total budget, while this year the sector gets only Tk 12.26 percent,” he added.

Farruque further said, “Why does the government impose ban on non-government teachers' participation in the local government elections? We will agree with the decision if we get similar salary and other facilities the government teachers enjoy.”

Former education minister Sheikh Shahidul Islam said a separate pay scale should be introduced for teachers so that meritorious students become eager to enter the teaching profession.

Education and Human Development Secretary of Awami League Nurul Islam Nahid said this year education sector is the most neglected one in the proposed national budget for fiscal 2008-09.

Dhaka University Teachers' Association (Duta) former president AAMS Arefin Siddique said the government should immediately withdraw the ban on non-government teachers' participation in the upcoming local body elections.

Former state minister for education Nitai Roy Chowdhury, Workers' Party of Bangladesh General Secretary Bimal Biswas, Communist Party of Bangladesh Secretary Ruhin Hossain Prince and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal Joint Secretary Nazmul Haq Prodhan also spoke at the roundtable.