The government has fixed the salary of assistant teachers of the primary schools at a higher pay scale under the 13th grade on the national pay scale.
The Finance Division issued a notice on the matter on August 12, stating that the new pay fixation would cover no arrears.
The letter, sent to the senior secretary of the primary and mass education ministry, read, salary of an assistant teacher will be determined on the basis of the last basic salary he withdrew as well as the number of timescales he received immediately before the upgradation.
On July 26 this year, the Ministry sent a letter to the Finance Division requesting fixation of the salary in the higher grade.
On November 8 last year, the government upgraded the salary of government primary school assistant teachers from grade-14 (trained) and grade-15 (untrained) to grade-13 and of headmaster from grade-12 (untrained) to grade-11.
But, assistant teachers had expressed discontent saying that the upgradation has lowered the amount of salary compared to the previous pay scale.
In the previous grade, the assistant teachers received timescale under 14th and 15th grades whereas the 13th grade had excluded it. As a result, they would receive less pay despite upgradation.
Currently, there are 354,072 teachers working in 65,720 government primary schools in Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the ministry said the decision will be implemented soon.
Senior Secretary of the Primary and Mass Education ministry Akram-Al-Hossain said they received the letter from the Finance Division.
“We will implement it as soon as possible. There will be no disparity in the assistant teachers’ salary,” he added.