Govt primary teachers resume full-day strike, classes suspended

Government primary school assistant teachers have resumed a full-day strike over three demands, leading to the suspension of classes in 65,500 schools across the country.

The strike is being led by the Primary Assistant Teachers’ Unity Council, which said the action was called due to the lack of visible progress from the government despite assurances of granting the 11th-grade pay scale. The strike, which began on Tuesday (25 November), is scheduled to continue until Thursday (27 November).

Commenting on the matter on Monday night (24 November), the organization’s joint convener Sabera Begum said, “We have been negotiating with the government for a long time on three demands: granting the 11th-grade pay scale to assistant teachers as entry-level posts, ensuring 100% departmental promotions, and resolving complications in receiving higher grades after 10 and 16 years of service. However, no tangible progress has been seen beyond assurances. Therefore, we are compelled to go on a full-day strike.”

She added that after half-day strikes were observed nationwide on 23 and 24 November, a continuous three-day full-day strike started on 25 November. The organisation has also announced that if progress is not made, they will boycott annual examinations and begin a continuous hunger strike from 11 December.

According to the Directorate of Primary Education, there are currently 65,569 government primary schools across the country, employing more than 384,000 teachers, with nearly 10 million students enrolled.

Earlier on 10 November, the teachers, who had been demonstrating with the same three-point demand, suspended their indefinite work abstention and returned to class.