The teachers and employees of non-MPO educational institutions, who have been demonstrating for enlistment under the government’s Monthly Payment Order (MPO) facilities, started fast unto death this morning.  

Around 200 teachers started the strike in front of Jatiya Press Club around 9:00am, reports our staff photographer from the spot. 

Since Tuesday, the teachers under the banner of "Non-MPO Shikhya Pratishthan Shikhyak Karmachari Federation" started their sit-in programme at the same place in the capital to realise their demand.

Yesterday, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid urged them to end their agitation and return to their homes.

Later, the teacher vowed to continue with their demonstration rejecting the education minister's call to end their agitation.

MPO is the government's share in the payroll of the non-government educational institutions. Under the scheme, the government gives 100 percent basic salaries to the teachers of non-government schools. The teachers also get a lump sum amount as other allowances from the MPO.

As per rules, the educational institutions first come under MPO facilities and then the government enlists the teachers in the payroll.

According to the leaders of the federation, the number of non-MPO educational institutions is 5,242, where around 80,000 teachers are working without any pay, some for more than a decade.

This is because the schools do not have the ability to pay the teachers while the government stopped enlisting the institutions for MPO due to “fund crisis”.

After a suspension of six years by the then BNP-led alliance government, the Awami League-led government revived the MPO facility in 2010, as per its electoral pledge, and enlisting 1,624 private secondary and higher secondary schools and colleges in the MPO scheme.

The rest of the non-MPO teachers have been staging various protests since then.

Currently, more than four lakh teachers and employees of more than 26,340 secondary schools, colleges, madrasas, and technical institutes are receiving MPO facilities.