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The government is yet to take any effective step to bring the striking non-government teachers back from the street into classrooms.
Various agitating groups of the teachers and employees, having leaning to both the government and opposition parties, staged demonstrations in the city and squatting at UNO offices across the country Monday, 19th day of their strike, to press home their demands, reports UNB.
The National Teachers and Employees Front (NTEF) held a rally at the Central Shaheed Minar at 11am on the day, with hundreds of teachers and employees from across the country thronging the venue in groups and processions.
The NTEF leaders at the rally vowed to continue their strike until their eight-point demand, including full salary from the government exchequer, was met.
NFTE Convener Kazi Farooq Ahmad said that the government was entirely responsible for the teachers coming out of the classrooms to the street, which left many schools, colleges and madrasahs shut.
"We want to be in the classrooms. Ask the government why it isn't taking any step yet to bring back the teachers to the classrooms," he said while talking to journalists on the sidelines of the rally.
On the other hand, the Teachers and Employees United Alliance (TEUA), as part of a simultaneous movement, staged a one-hour sit-in in front of the UNO offices across the country.
In a statement, TEUA Convener M Selim Bhuiyan said that the education minister should be accountable to the teachers' community "for the 'farce' he is doing in the name of discussion with the so-called teacher-leaders of his pocket organisation".
The TEUA, known as a pro-government forum, will hold a rally Thursday and stage sit-in on August 2 at Muktangan in the city to realise its 10-point demand, including nationalisation of the services of its members.
Since July 6, more than 0.50 million non-government teachers and employees have been on the indefinite strike. The strike left most of the 30,000 non-government schools, colleges, madrasahs and technical institutions closed across the country, affecting academic life of millions of students.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Polytechnic Teachers Association (BPTA) passed day three of its four-day strike Monday. The BPTA went on strike Saturday to press home its 10-point demand.
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