Staff Reporter :
Teachers and employees from non-government educational institutions under the MPO (Monthly Pay Order) scheme have ended their eight-day protest after the government announced a 15 percent increase in their house rent allowance.
The announcement came on Tuesday afternoon around 2:00 pm at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka, where protest leaders declared the withdrawal of their movement. The decision followed an official notification from the Ministry of Finance to the Ministry of Education confirming the allowance hike.
Education Adviser CR Abrar personally handed over a copy of the official order to the protesting teachers’ representatives.
After receiving the order, Delawar Hossain Azizi, Member Secretary of the MPO-listed Teachers and Employees Nationalisation Forum, said, “We have decided to withdraw all our demonstrations and programmes from this moment. Tomorrow, we will return to our classrooms.”
He further explained that the government’s decision includes a 15 percent increase in house rent allowance, to be implemented in two phases — 7.5 percent (not less than Tk 2,000) starting from November this year, and the remaining 7.5 percent from July 2026.
Acknowledging the disruption caused by the protest, Azizi stated that educational institutions would remain open every Saturday until the annual examinations to make up for the eight days lost during the demonstration.
He also expressed gratitude to various political parties and organisations — including the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, NCP, and Islami Andolan Bangladesh — for their solidarity with the teachers’ movement.
Teachers and staff under the MPO scheme had been demonstrating continuously since 12 October, pressing a three-point demand, with the key issue being an increase in house rent allowance.
With the government’s latest concession, the long-standing standoff between MPO teachers and the authorities appears to have reached a peaceful resolution, paving the way for normal academic activities to resume from Wednesday.
