Job seekers lock NTRCA office
News Desk :
A group of job seekers locked the gate of the Non-Government Teachers’ Registration and Certification Authority office in Dhaka, demanding immediate action on their recruitment.
The incident occurred around 3:45pm on Monday, when the protesters locked the main gate and entered the premises.
About an hour later, at 4:30pm, police broke the lock and removed the demonstrators from inside the building. Since then, police have been stationed inside the compound while the protesters remain outside, reports bdnews24.com
The demonstrators are candidates who passed the 18th Teachers’ Registration Examination but were not recommended for appointment in the sixth public circular. They marched from Shahbagh to the Banglamotor area before gathering in front of the NTRCA office.
Shouting “No discrimination in Sonar Bangla”, “Merit over lobbying”, “We belong in classrooms, not on the streets”, and “Who are you? Certificate holders!”, the job seekers continued their sit-in.
A delegation of the protesters later met Additional Secretary Aminul Islam of NTRCA around 1pm, according to delegation member Akteruzzaman.
“They refused all our demands,” he said. “Two of our protesters suffered strokes. Some of us had to take them to the hospital.”
Shortly after the meeting, the group locked the NTRCA office gate in protest.
The day before, the protesters had staged a mass rally and demonstration at Shahbagh, followed by a candlelight march at night that started in front of the National Museum, circled the TSC intersection, and returned to Shahbagh, where they held a brief sit-in.
Movement leader Khorshed Alam had announced at the time that they would begin a “long march” to the NTRCA office on Monday morning. He also warned that they would shut down the NTRCA office if a special circular was not issued.
Their key demands include:
• Issuance of a special circular incorporating all vacant posts until Dec 31 this year.
• Recruitment of 16,213 candidates who passed the exams but were excluded from the latest recommendations, after analysing subject-specific data before any policy changes.
On Jun 16, NTRCA sought applications to fill 108,822 vacant teacher posts at MPO-listed non-government educational institutions under the sixth public circular, with the application window open from Jun 22 to Jul 10.
The results, published on Aug 19, recommended 41,627 candidates for appointment. Those selected had until Sep 18 to join work.
At an NTRCA workshop on Sep 30, its chairman Md Aminul Islam said: “It may appear that there are many vacancies and yet many qualified candidates remain unrecommended, but that’s not the full picture.
“The registration exam certifies candidates for specific subjects — sometimes a subject has many candidates but few posts, and in others, many posts but few candidates.”