Staff Reporter :
Police clashed with non-government primary school teachers in the capital on Monday as the demonstrators attempted to march towards the residence of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus to press for the nationalisation of their schools.
Around 4pm, several hundred teachers set out from the National Press Club, heading towards Jamuna, the chief adviser’s residence.
As the procession reached the Kodom Fountain intersection near the High Court, police intercepted them.
Law enforcers then used sound grenades and sprayed water from cannons to disperse the crowd, according to Mazharul Islam, assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police’s Ramna division.
He, however, denied allegations that police baton-charged the protesters.
Earlier in the day, teachers staged a sit-in outside the Press Club under the banner of the Bangladesh Non-Government Primary School Teachers’ Unity Council.
Organisers claimed that nearly a thousand teachers joined the protest, demanding that around 5,000 non-government primary schools be brought under government management, as recommended by a consultation committee of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.
The teachers argued that in January 2013, the then Awami League government had pledged to nationalise all non-government primary schools.
While 26,193 schools were brought under state management at the time, thousands were left out.
On 2 February this year, the Chief Adviser’s Office reportedly instructed the education ministry to take necessary steps to address the issue.
