02:04 PM, December 30, 2017 / LAST MODIFIED: 02:12 PM, December 30, 2017

Non-MPO teachers continue demo

Teachers and employees of non-MPO educational institutions are continuing their demonstrations for the five consecutive days today, demanding enlistment under the government's Monthly Pay Order (MPO) facilities.

Several hundred teachers under the banner of “Non-MPO Shikhya Pratishthan Shikhyak Karmachari Federation” from across the country resumed their sit-in programme in front of Jatiya Press Club of Dhaka in the morning.

“We will start a hunger strike unto death tomorrow if the demand is not met by today,” Golam Mahmudunnabi, president of the federation, told The Daily Star.

He urged all teachers and employees of the government registered non-MPO schools, colleges, madrasas and technical institutions to join the hunger strike.

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 through the MPO.

As per the 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 institutions do not have the ability to pay the teachers while the government stopped bringing these institutions under its payroll for what they said due to a fund crunch.

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, enlisting 1,624 private secondary and higher secondary schools and colleges in the MPO scheme.

The rest of the non-MPO teachers have been organising various protest programmes 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.