Primary school teachers’ ‘shutdown’ programme suspended

Government primary school assistant teachers have suspended their continuous ‘complete shutdown’ or work abstention programme, which they had launched to press home their three-point demand. An organiser of the movement confirmed this to Prothom Alo after 11:30 pm on Thursday.

The teacher said that considering the interests of young students, it has been decided to suspend the shutdown until the annual examinations are over. A new programme will be announced after the exams. A press release announcing the suspension was to be issued later last night.

In government primary schools, classes are conducted by head teachers and assistant teachers. Across the country, there are 65,569 government primary schools with more than 10 million (1 crore) students. Of the 369,216 approved assistant teacher posts, 352,208 are currently filled.

The three demands of the primary teachers are: granting assistant teachers 11th grade in the national pay scale for the time being, resolving complications regarding higher grade entitlement upon completion of 10 and 16 years of service, as well as ensuring 100 per cent departmental promotion from assistant teacher to head teacher. Currently, assistant teachers are positioned in the 13th grade.

On 27 November, the ‘Primary Teachers’ Demand Implementation Council’ began their work abstention to press these demands. On Monday, they started boycotting the annual examinations as well. From Wednesday, the council began a ‘complete shutdown’ in the schools.

Another group of assistant teachers, demonstrating under the banner of the ‘Assistant Teacher Organisation Oikya Parishad’, had also observed a work abstention from 23 to 27 November demanding nearly the same reforms.

From Thursday, they too began enforcing a ‘lockdown’ programme in schools. Consequently, for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, annual exams did not take place in many schools across the country. In several institutions, teachers themselves locked the school gates.

In some places, the exams could only be held after local administration intervened and broke open the locks. Reports also emerged of exams being conducted under police and Ansar guard. Even in schools where examinations were held in a limited capacity, concerns arose about whether answer scripts would be assessed properly.

Overall, the ongoing third-term assessment (annual examination) in government primary schools across the country has plunged into serious crisis.

The work abstention in the middle of annual exams has caused significant academic loss for students, triggering frustration among parents. In an attempt to quell the movement, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education took a hardline stance.

Following the ministry’s directives, a number of teachers, including movement leaders, were transferred on Thursday from one district to another on “administrative grounds”.

In this situation, the teachers decided to suspend the ongoing ‘complete shutdown’ until the exams end. However, the teachers stated that the suspension was made purely out of consideration for the students.