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Government primary school teachers warned on Saturday that tougher action programme would be taken if the government did not realise their demands.
They issued the warning at a grand rally organised by the assistant teachers of government primary schools at Central Shaheed Minar in the capital.
From the rally, they called upon the government to realise their three-point charter of demands including salary upgrade to the 11th grade.
The rally began at about 10:00am with participation of a large number of teachers from across the country.
The Assistant Teachers' Organisation Unity Council, an alliance of six separate organisations of primary school teachers, organised the event.
Representatives from various political parties, including BNP, Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, National Citizen Party (NCP), and Gono Odhikar Parishad (GOP), have expressed their solidarity with the teachers' demands.
The teachers' demands are: paying their entry-level salary at the 11th grade, resolving the complications regarding obtaining higher pay grades after the completion of 10 and 16 years in job and 100 per cent promotion of assistant teachers to the head teacher posts.
"We will announce stricter programme from the rally if specific promises don't come today (Saturday)," Shamsuddin Masud, one of the leaders of the council, said.
Attending the rally and expressing his solidarity with the teachers' pleas, BNP's organising secretary and also teacher leader Selim Bhuiyan assured the teachers that if the present interim government did not resolve their (teachers) problems then his party would consider their demands if voted to power.
Advocate Mohammad Siddique Ullah Mia said that if the teachers' demands were not fulfilled then he would fight a legal battle for realising their demands.
At present around 0.375 million teachers are employed at the government primary schools across the country. The headmasters/ headmistresses of the schools enjoy the 10th grade while the assistant teachers enjoy the 13th grade.
Meanwhile, in another development, a 12-member delegation of teachers went to the Chief Adviser's official residence Jamuna for submitting a memorandum containing their demands during the rally held at the Central Shaheed Minar.
The teachers at the rally said that they would take their next course of action after seeing the government stance on considering their demands.
talhabinhabib@yahoo.com