Of rationale behind the govt primary school teachers' strike

Living in the age of Universal Primary Education it goes with our expectation that non-government primary school teachers would press home their demands for nationalisation. When the root cause of our lagging behind has been identified as the lack of our education, we strongly support their demand and agitation. Receiving elementary education from the state is the fundamental right of every child irrespective of colour, caste, creed and religion. Their agitation and hunger strike invited the attention of the government which came forward with some incentives which pacified the teachers though their main demand of nationalisation of their job was not realised. They received only ten percent of their salary while they now get fifty percent from the government.

If we analyse the rationale behind the strike of the government primary school teachers the following points surface. Our government primary school teachers enjoy all sorts of government benefits, as they are government employees. But our secondary education is run privately as 98% of secondary schools are community based. Non-government secondary school teachers are more qualified than primary school teachers. These teachers give twenty-five or more years service to the nation and when they go home go there empty handed. These teachers produce the accomplished children of the country ranging from doctors, engineers to university teachers. Their contribution to the nation is immeasurable but they receive scant state benefit. They, at present, enjoy 90% benefit from the government only as their basic salary. They get from the government only 100 taka as house rent and 150 taka fixed medical allowance, which seems to be a farce. They also don't get their salary regularly. The government primary school teachers get their salary on time. It is a cruel reality that most of the teachers of non-government secondary school get only the government benefit. No money is given to them from the school. They depend on that government grant for their survival. The grim fact is that to get this 90% government benefit they had to take to the streets and agitate, though our respective government declares boldly the highest budget for education every year. The disparity in respect of salary and social status was removed in 1981 when the then government introduced a uniformed national scale for the government and non-government secondary school teachers. But the tragedy was that only 50% government benefit of their basic salary was given to the teachers and the disparity remained as it was. Since then twenty-five years have elapsed but the teachers enjoy only 90% of their basic salary. This compelled teachers to take to the streets to realise their demands.

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What rationale lies behind the strike of government primary school teachers? Only salary disparity between trained and non-trained teachers and introduction of School Based Assessment. Is this enough to resort to such kind of tough programme? Could it not be done through dialogue or discussion? Don't they have any responsibility towards the little children? In this poor country our government primary school teachers are not well off and are leading a miserable life like the non-government secondary school teachers and non-government college teachers as well. But then, not the others are on strike.

Schools are passing very important time, as it is the middle of the academic year when children start learning something as the previous part was occupied by sports, exams, results and vacation. Questions arise when we look at the standard of primary education of the country. In most of the cases many primary school passed students cannot write even the alphabets correctly. Many students who get enrolled in class six show extremely poor performance. Do the government primary school teachers notice these? Don't have they any responsibility and duty towards these students?

School Based Assessment means the formative assessment of the learners. Definitely the elementary teachers must devote themselves to the development of the buds, which are going to be full-bloomed flowers. Teachers should know the ways and means to implement SBA. They cannot afford to avoid it. Because this system has been absent so far, they may face some difficulties at the initial stage. Subsequently they will be able to overcome the hurdles. But we cannot support their keeping 37000 primary schools under lock and key just to protest SBA without considering its merits and demerits.

Yes, teachers can say that when corrupt politicians and black money makers enjoy very gorgeous and posh life, why can't we? Teachers are the conscience of the nation. They cannot do what the dishonest politicians can do. Had conscience prevailed with those politicians, the country would not have faced this appalling situation after thirty-five years of independence. Teachers must rise to the occasion. Definitely they deserve more facilities from the government, but they must not forget the professional duties and their position in the society.

They must also think of their brothers who serve in non-government secondary schools.

The government of our country nurture many white elephants. They satisfy these organisations at the cost of people's enhanced tax, which definitely becomes the cause of exacerbation of the common citizens of the country. Every government has absolutely failed to satisfy the demands of the teachers of all levels. The matter of teacher development has been a neglected issue for a very long time. Sometimes we hear something from the government but the genuine change is hardly discernible. So, education of the citizens to develop them into potential human resource remains neglected. The irregularities and inefficiencies in the government machinery create scope for the teachers to come out of the classes and create chaos. Government must caste a reasonable, judicious and sympathetic eye towards the demand of teachers. And the quality of primary school teachers must be ensured at any cost. The government machinery of this sector (I mean the ministry of education) must give a serious thought to it. The teaching and way of teaching of the outside world has undergone a tremendous change with which our teachers must have acquaintance, and this responsibility lies with the Ministry of Education. How is it that the internal problem of the primary school teachers could not be resolved by the ministry?

Our tertiary educational institutions have been plagued by nasty political chaos. Arms have replaced books; the research and study time of the teachers is now occupied by politics. Now teachers need not produce research articles in the journals, they need to follow some party politics. They are to prove that they belong to a particular party. Instead of subject-based research, they conduct research on party politics.

If primary education takes a political colour then the future will be bleak for the nation. The government primary school teachers' agitation is an ominous sign. The sooner the government can deal with it, the better without giving the matter any political colour. We request the agitating teachers to think of the miserable condition of the non-government secondary school teachers to review their course of action.

Md. Masum Billah works for Post Primary Basic And Continuing Education (PACE) Programme, BRAC.