Madrasa teachers too, reject assurances

Hunger-striking madrasa teachers too have rejected the assuring words of Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, demanding specifics – as the non-MPO teachers did.

The madrasa teachers demanding nationalisation met the minister twice this afternoon and were assured that “the matter would be moved to appropriate authority”.

Minister Nahid requested the teachers to return home assuring them to place their demand before higher authorities. However, the madrassa teachers rejected his assurance.

"We will continue hunger strike until Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina makes an announcement," Qazi Ruhul Amin Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Swatantra Ebtedai Madrasa Shikkhak Samity, told The Daily Star.

The hunger strike of the madrasa teachers rolled onto the sixth day today with at least 30 falling sick. At least 124 teachers fell ill and six of them have been hospitalised.

There are around 48,000 teachers of around 10,000 madrasas who are not getting any pay, since the institutions got registered under the Madrasa Education Board in 1984.

In 1994, some 6,776 teachers of 1,519 madrasas started getting Tk 500 as allowances through a government circular.

Later in 2013, the government elevated the amount to Tk 1,000. In 2016-17, the government increased the allowances of headteachers to Tk 2,500 and assistant headteachers to Tk 2,300.

But the rest of the teachers have not been paid any allowance from the government since 1984, said the teachers.