Bangladesh Primary Assistant Teachers’ Alliance on Wednesday announced that they would boycott the upcoming Primary Education Completion Examination, scheduled for November 17, if the government did not upgrade their salary scale by November 13.
The alliance member secretary Md Shamsuddin Masud gave the ultimatum to press home their demands at a demonstration in front of the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka.
They demanded upgrade of the assistant teachers’ salary from 14th to 11th grade and for the head teachers from 11th to 10th grade on the National Pay Scale.
The agitating teachers claimed some 20 of them were injured and one was arrested, and later was released, when police tried to disperse them from the spot.
Sajjadur Rahman, Ramna zone deputy commissioner, said that the alliance had no permission to host any programme on the spot either from the Dhaka University or Dhaka Metropolitan Police authorities.
‘They won’t be allowed to hold any programme there,’ he added.
The government earlier ordered the authorities concerned to make sure the government primary school teachers did not leave their respective work stations on Wednesday, a holiday for all schools on the occasion on Akheri Chahar Shomba, fearing ‘disorder’ over the teachers’ prescheduled rally in Dhaka.
