Teachers of MPO listed private colleges, madrasas and technical colleges have demanded abolition of current ratio policy, and revert to previous policy.
They demanded promotion to the positions of assistant professor from lecturer on the basis of their merit by abolishing the ratio promotion system and demanded direct promotion from grade nine to grade seven.
In this regard, they will arrange a virtual press conference on Wednesday where Secretary General of Bangladesh Private Teacher Employees Forum Abdul Khaleq will address about the issue.
On June 25, hundreds of teachers from private colleges, madrasas and technical colleges from different parts of the country took part in a virtual meeting regarding the matter and said that the ratio policy is highly discriminatory.
They demanded the amendment of the position of grade eight and abolish the ratio system.
President of ‘College Teachers Council’ Jyotish Majumdar presided over the virtual conference and Zahirul Islam conducted the meeting.
The speakers pointed out various inconsistent sections of Manpower Structure and MPO Policy 2018 and demanded immediate amendment of those sections.
According to the teachers, on the basis of 5:2 policy or ratio policy, two out of seven teachers will get promotion as assistant professors and be honoured in the 6th grade (Tk 35,000) after eight years.
On the other hand, the remaining 5 lecturers will retire from the same post.
These 5 teachers or 72 of the lecturers will get 8th grade on completion of 10 years, which will increase their salary by only Tk 1,000.
Due to such discriminatory policies, a teacher working in the same position with the same qualifications will get a salary increase of Tk 13,500 in eight years and most of the lecturers will get a salary increase of only Tk 1,000 after 10 years.
Terming the policy irrational, the protesting teachers demanded immediate abolition of the policy and revert to the previous policy.
In the previous policies, lecturers who were deprived of promotion would get grade eight after completion of eight years.
In addition, the new policy has shut the opportunity to apply for the post of principal or vice-principal. However, in the previous policy, lecturers with 12/15 years of experience would have the opportunity to apply for the post of principal or vice-principal.
The following demands were made to the government from the meeting.
1. Abolishing the ratio system and appointing everyone to the post of assistant professor at a certain time. Gradually creating associate professors and professor post.
2. Promotion of lecturers directly from 9th grade to 7th grade as before.
3. Giving everyone the opportunity to apply for the post of Vice Principal or Principal with 12 or 15 years of experience.
4. To make arrangements for auto grade / scale change instead of repeated application to prevent harassment in grade / scale change.
5. Above all, nationalization of all MPO enlisted educational institutions to eliminate all inequalities in education.
The meeting decided to send a memorandum to all teachers' organizations, the Department of Education, the Ministry of Education and the Prime Minister's Office via email within the next seven days.
It was also decided to hold a virtual press conference next week with leaders and educationists from various teachers' organizations.