Dhaka, November 9:
Government primary school teachers in Bangladesh staged protests for the second consecutive day at the Central Shaheed Minar in Dhaka on Sunday, pressing a set of three major demands, according to local media reports.
The demonstrations, led by the Primary Teachers’ Demand Implementation Council under the banner of the Bangladesh Primary Teachers’ Association, were marked by anger over Saturday’s police action against teachers during a peaceful rally titled “Kolom Shomarpon” (pen submission) at Shahbagh.
Association President Abul Kashem said teachers across the country have begun a work abstention in protest against the police attack, which left more than a hundred teachers injured and five detained. “We demand the resignation of the advisers to the Ministries of Home Affairs and Primary and Mass Education for terming our demands irrational and ordering police repression,” Kashem stated.
The protesting teachers have placed three key demands — upgrading assistant teachers to the 10th-grade pay scale, resolving complications in the higher grade system after 10 and 16 years of service, and ensuring 100 per cent departmental promotions. Kashem warned that protests and school boycotts would continue until the government met their demands.
Meanwhile, a separate wave of demonstrations emerged from Dhaka University and Jagannath University, where teachers and students protested the interim government’s recent decision to abolish music and physical education (PE) teacher posts in primary schools.
Criticising the move, Dhaka University student Humaira Nawaz said, “Music and physical education are essential to raising children into well-rounded human beings. Removing these subjects is a national disgrace.”
Associate Professor Azizur Rahman Tuhin added that the decision was “a blow to Bangladesh’s cultural heritage and children’s holistic development.”
The protests follow the November 2 revised government gazette that excluded the two teaching posts initially included in the August 28 version of the Government Primary School Teachers Recruitment Rules 2025.
