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Published : 21 Oct 2025, 03:33 PM
Teachers and employees at educational institutions under the government's monthly pay order (MPO) scheme have called off their protests and announced a return to classes after the government announced that their housing allowances would be hiked up to 15 percent of their basic salary by July 2026.
The hike is to come in two phases. Initially, the amount will be raised to 7.5 percent of basic salary, or a minimum of Tk 2,000 this November. The Ministry of Finance will make the second hike to 15 percent from Jul 1 next year.
The Finance Division of the ministry issued an order approving the allowance increase on the 10th day of protests on Tuesday.
However, the protests, which began on Oct 12, have not succeeded in gaining the hikes in medical allowance and festival allowance that were part of their demands.
The Finance Division said, “The additional benefits mentioned in the next pay scale will have to be adjusted. The conditions for appointment of teachers and employees must be met according to the MPO policy and government guidelines. Teachers and employees will not receive any arrears in the case of an increase in house rent allowance.”
Stating that financial rules and regulations must be followed in providing this allowance to teachers and employees, the Finance Division says that if there is any future irregularity in the expenditure related to this allowance, the bill paying authority will be held responsible.
Protest leaders had discussed their demands with Education Advisor Chowdhury Rafiqul Abrar and other officials at the Secretariat since the morning.
At 1:45pm, the education advisor handed over the Finance Division’s letter of consent to Principal Delwar Hossain Azizi, member secretary of the Alliance for Nationalisation of MPO-Listed Educational Institutions.
Advisor Abrar then said, "A realistic and very important development is the issue of teachers and employees under private MPOs. Teachers play an important role in building our country, but their salary structure and other benefits are quite low."
Expressing his determination to be conscious and diligent about increasing the facilities and benefits of teachers and employees, he said: "In this case, we (the Ministry of Education) were not at fault. We tried.
"No matter how much we wanted to, we have to remember that the economic situation was very fragile when the interim government took charge of the country, and efforts are being made to overcome that situation."
The advisor said that the Ministry of Education never had any “doubts” about the reasonableness of the demands of the teachers and employees. "However, considering our resources, their house rent allowance (5 percent or a minimum of Tk 2,000) was fixed."
Protest leader Delwar expressed his gratitude to the interim government and those concerned and announced that they would return to classes from Wednesday.
He also urged the education advisor to increase the festival allowance of MPO employees to 75 percent of the basic salary and to initiate transfers of MPO teachers.
Teachers and employees have been protesting since Oct 12 under the banner of the “Alliance for Nationalisation of MPO-Listed Educational Institutions”, which represents employees at MPO-listed institutions, demanding their housing allowance be increased to 20 percent of their basic salary, their medical allowance be raised from Tk 500 to Tk 1,500, and for festival allowance to be hiked from 50 percent to 75 percent of the basic salary.
On Oct 17, they also added a demand for the nationalisation of all private educational institutions.
The protesting teachers and employees staged a sit-in demonstration at the Central Shaheed Minar since the morning to voice their demands. Some of them also conducted a “hunger strike until death” programme. Four of those on hunger strike had fallen ill.
Leaders of various political parties, including the National Citizen Party (NCP) and Jamaat-e-Islami, and cultural group Inquilab Mancha have already expressed solidarity with the demands of the MPO-affiliated teachers and employees. The Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU), Jahangirnagar University Central Students' Union (JUCSU), students of Dhaka University, Jagannath University, and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), as well as various teachers’ organisations have also expressed support for the demands of the teachers and employees.
HOW MUCH DID THE GOVT RAISE ALLOWANCES PREVIOUSLY?
The government initially raised the house rent allowance for MPO-listed teachers and employees by Tk 500 on Sept 30, but teachers rejected the increase and called for protests after the announcement was made public on Oct 5.
On Oct 6, the education ministry proposed to the Finance Division that the house rent allowance be increased to at least Tk 2,000 or Tk 3,000. Teachers and employees began their continuous sit-in from Oct 12.
In the face of the protest movement, the government increased the housing allowance of teachers and employees of MPO-listed educational institutions to 5 percent of the basic salary, or a minimum of Tk 2,000, on Sunday. However, the teachers and employees have refused to budge from their demand of a 20 percent housing allowance.
MPO-listed teachers and staff receive salaries under the national pay scale. Along with their basic salary, they currently receive Tk 500 per month as a medical allowance. Previously, they received Tk 1,000 as a house rent allowance, which was increased and has now been set at 5 percent of the basic salary or a minimum of Tk 2,000.
Earlier, MPO-listed teachers received two annual festival allowances each at 25 percent of basic salary. Following an increase in May, they now receive festival allowances amounting to 50 percent of their basic pay.
On Monday, the 10th day of the protests, the government has decided to increase the housing allowance once again.
