'Every adviser has already secured their future'
Every adviser has already secured their future, Samantha Sharmin, senior joint convener of the National Citizenship Party (NCP), said today.
She made the remarks while expressing solidarity with a teachers' protest at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Samantha said the interim government came to power through the sacrifices of students, teachers, and professionals who shed their blood for change.
"Yet, with deep regret, we now see that the same government, established with such high hopes, has turned against the people -- against education," she said.
"The government is spending Tk 300 crore to buy cars for a ministry, but whenever the question of increasing teachers' salaries and allowances arises, we are told 'the government has no money'. Each adviser is busy securing their own benefits," she said.
"Sheikh Hasina deliberately pushed Bangladesh's education system towards destruction, we thought the interim government would try to stop that. But sadly, we now see the entire nation being dragged into election mode, while no steps have been taken to fulfil the hopes and expectations of teachers and students," she said.
"Taking lives with bullets is a crime, but destroying the education system is no lesser crime," she added.
Samantha said, "The gravest damage to Bangladesh's education system has been the devaluation of teachers. From training to salaries and allowances, there has been utter negligence."
"If a demand for a 20 percent house rent allowance has to be placed before the interim government, it shows how sincere they truly are about improving the country's education system. The salary they offer cannot support even a lower-income family," the NCP leader said.
She also said, "The government has taken no steps to nationalise MPO-listed teachers, nor has it responded to calls for increasing house rent and medical allowances. When teachers came forward to press these demands, three of them were injured and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital."
"After a mass uprising, we did not want to see such a situation," Samantha added.
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