Secondary school teachers announce one-hour work abstention on Saturday

Secondary school teachers under the banner of Bangladesh Secondary Assistant Teachers' Association will go for work abstention for an hour on Saturday (May 11) in protest of the government's decision to keep all schools open every Saturday.

Teachers will observe the work abstention from 10:00am to 11:00am on Saturday at all secondary educational institutions across the country.

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Jahangir Hossain, the central president of Bangladesh Secondary Assistant Teachers' Association, and Nur Alam Biplob, the general secretary of the organisation, announced the programme in a press release issued yesterday.

The press release said the government's unilateral decision has left students, teachers, and guardians confused over the multiple decisions on keeping schools open on Saturday, a weekly holiday.

They said if the government does not rescind its decision, teachers will observe work abstention for the entire day every Saturday.

The next course of action will be announced this Saturday, they said.

Talking to this newspaper, the organisation's vice president Mohammad Yasin said, "Although the government has been saying that they decided to keep schools open on Saturday to recover learning gaps, we think they have a plan to cancel the weekly holiday on Saturdays permanently. That's why we are going for this movement."

The press release said no natural disaster has been caused by teachers or students. Considering the circumstances, educational institutions may be temporarily closed, as was done before. But reducing the designated holidays is not acceptable, it said.

It also mentioned that teachers, students, and guardians make various plans for weekly holidays following the academic calendar. It is not possible to fulfil the plans with just a single weekly holiday.

The statement further said educational institutions remain open even on national days while people from other professions enjoy the holidays.

Moreover, last year's summer and winter holidays were cancelled and this year's Ramadan holiday was also cut short to address the learning gap.

All these decisions reflect lack of transparency, it said.