Public university teachers to send proposals to govt

Leaders of public university teachers yesterday on the fifth day of a strike for removing "disparities" from the new pay scale and retaining selection grade and time scale said they would submit a package to the education ministry today for a quick solution.

"We sat today to take decisions...We will finalise the proposals and send it...by tomorrow noon," said Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed, president of the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA), a platform of the country's 37 public universities.

One of the proposals would be keeping 25 percent of the professors in grade-1 and providing an acceptable proportion of teachers the status equivalent to that of senior secretaries, he told The Daily Star.

The protest against the eighth pay scale began last May with a four-point demand, including formation of a commission to initiate an independent pay scale for university teachers.

Other demands include parity between salaries and allowances of senior professors and senior secretaries, and those of professors and secretaries; and upgrading of teachers' status in order of precedence.

Meanwhile, teachers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Teachers' Association (BSMMUTA) threatened to go for tougher programmes like stopping healthcare services for a certain period over similar demands.

"We are providing treatment facilities considering the situation of patients. But some of our doctors have become agitated enough to stop treatment," BSMMUTA President Prof Kanak Kanti Barua told The Daily Star.

Earlier, BSMMU teachers held a meeting at Milton Hall on the campus with Kanak Kanti Barua in the chair. Later they organised a rally and brought out a procession in silence.

"We expect the government to reach an acceptable solution in the shortest possible time to end the prevailing chaos," Prof Kanak said.

Holding "bureaucratic complexities" responsible for the deadlock, he said, "We have already boycotted classes. Even schedule for examinations is not being given now. We expect the government to provide an honourable solution immediately."