Teachers’ demand for job nationalisation should get sympathetic attention

The striking secondary level school teachers’ demand for nationalisation of their jobs has to be seen sympathetically. They have been on strike for about two weeks now, yet the education ministry has not responded to their demand positively. There is no assurance that their grievances will be addressed, if not now after sometime later, if not all at a time but in phases.

No hard stance of the government towards the teacher is expected in these days of high food inflation. Currently what they receive can hardly meet their day-to-day expenses in life. The teachers say that they want Tk 16,000 in basic salary, 45 per cent of the basic in house rent, Tk 1,500 in medical allowance and a hundred percent of the basic in festival allowance at the entry level which is what government teachers now get.

Presently, the entry-level non-government teachers get Tk 12,500 in basic salary, a consolidated Tk 1,000 in house rent and Tk 500 in medical allowance. They also receive a quarter of their basic salary in festival allowance. Responding to their demand, the government has offered the teacher on strike an additional 5 per cent of their basic salary.

Here one thing has also to be taken into consideration. The education sector receives allocation in the annual budget far less than what is regarded as standard in the world. The sanction of 1.76 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product for the education ministries in the 2023-24 fiscal is the lowest in the past 15 years. It is way less than UNESCO’s recommendation of four to six percent allocation of the GDP for the sector.

The government’s budget for education has decreased in the last decade on the one hand, but the government officials’ salary has more than doubled in this time. The present authoritarian government has apparently done this to remain in power by bribing the public servants.

However, as a welfare state Bangladesh’s education, at least up to school level, should have been free, but the fanfare with which the free textbooks are given in the beginning of an academic year gives an impression that the government gives these free textbooks by the money of an individual.

Recently, the Education Minister Dipu Moni implied in her speech that if the teachers continued to stay on roads, their ‘agenda’ was something else, hinting that teachers’ sit-in programmes might have political connections. This is deplorable.