Thousands of MPO-registered teachers and staff from private educational institutions staged a symbolic hunger march in Dhaka on Sunday afternoon, only to be halted by heavy police presence near the High Court intersection.
Carrying empty plates and bowls to protest the government’s recent 5% rent allowance decision, the demonstrators were prevented from advancing toward Shiksha Bhavan—the headquarters of the Ministry of Education.
The procession began around 3:30 pm from the Central Shaheed Minar, looping through Doel Chattar before reaching the High Court intersection. There, more than 100 police personnel and six platoons of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) formed a barricade, blocking further movement.
Undeterred but unable to proceed, the teachers stood at the intersection for nearly an hour, chanting slogans such as: “Either accept the demand, or else put a bullet in our chest!”.
By 4:30 pm, the group peacefully returned to Shaheed Minar without incident.
Addressing the crowd before the march, Principal Delwar Hossain Aziji, Member Secretary of the MPO-affiliated Education Nationalization Alliance, declared the government’s 5% rent allowance “unacceptable.”
“The government has offered 5 percent. Our stance is clear—we do not accept it,” Aziji said. “This is only the beginning. Our movement will intensify until we achieve full victory.”
He announced that the current symbolic hunger strike—delayed from its planned 12 noon start to 3 pm due to coordination efforts—would be escalated from Monday, with “lakhs of teachers across the country” expected to join stricter forms of protest.
Aziji also revealed that the alliance had met with BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir earlier in the day. “He fully supports our demands,” Aziji told reporters, “and has assured us of the BNP’s all-out cooperation in our struggle.”
The protest centers on longstanding grievances over the government’s failure to implement a fair and uniform rent allowance for MPO (Monthly Pay Order) teachers in private institutions—a group that performs public-sector duties but remains employed under private management. The recent 5% notification has been widely dismissed by educators as inadequate and arbitrary.
As tensions simmer, education authorities and law enforcement remain on high alert, anticipating further demonstrations in the coming days. For now, the empty plates carried through Dhaka’s streets serve as a stark reminder: the teachers’ hunger may be symbolic, but their demands are very real.