University teachers announce two-day halt to protest as meeting with govt delayed

Protesting university teachers have announced a two-day halt to their protests demanding the withdrawal of the Prottoy pension scheme.

“We will restart our protest again on Sunday. There will be no protests on Friday and Saturday,” Nizamul Hoque Bhuiyan, general secretary of Bangladesh University Teachers Samity Association, said today (4 July) during a protest event at Dhaka University.

Meanwhile, teachers have continued their protest for the fourth consecutive day as a meeting with the government, scheduled to take place, was delayed. 

“We are hopeful for a positive solution. I talked to the general secretary of the Bangladesh Awami League Obaidul Quader. He couldn’t set the meeting as he had some state affairs to attend to. He told us he will sit with us at a later date. He also said this to our president of the DU Teachers Association Nizamul Hoque Bhuiyan,” Zinat Huda, general secretary of the association, said.

Meanwhile, confirming the matter to The Business Standard this evening, Nizamul Hoque said, “The meeting has been stopped. The possible date of the meeting will be announced soon.”

Another meeting with Education Minister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury has also been postponed.

“Public universities cannot sit like this day after day. I hope there will be a positive outcome of our protest. The meeting with the education minister has also been postponed and it will happen soon,” Zinat said.

Members of the DU Teachers Association continued their protest at the DU Fine Arts Building today.

Speaking on the occasion, another teacher Md Mostafizur Rahaman said, “If this is how the advantages of government jobs decrease, the quality of education will be down. There will be no qualified teachers at public universities.”

“Kindly accept our demand,” he called on the government.

Protesting teachers told the media yesterday that they had contacted the government to discuss the issue of cancelling the Prottoy scheme and a meeting was scheduled to take place today.

Session jam feared

The continuing protest is hampering academic activities with many fearing for another session jam among students.

Speaking to TBS, a DU student said, “There are many exams that were about to take place but were stopped due to the protest. There is a chance of a session jam. We have already suffered due to session jam during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

Another student from  the university said, “There is no announcement of resuming our classes as the protests of teachers are going on. All activities are still halted. Even the university canteens are closed. We hope this situation will be resolved soon.”

Teachers have also expressed concern over the educational loss, but they reaffirmed  their position to continue the protest until their demand is met.

Zinat Huda said, “As long as our logical demands are not accepted, the universal movement will continue. This movement is not for the teachers sitting here but for the future teachers.

“Thousands of students cannot be stuck [without education] like this day after day. We will solve this problem.”

Nizamul said, “We don’t want to keep our universities closed like this anymore. We hope our logical demand will be accepted soon.”

“We were expecting to end our protest today. Our main job is to teach the students. We want to get back to our classes. Our students are facing educational loss,” said Professor Lutfur Rahman, former president of DU Teachers Association.