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Published : 15 Oct 2025, 02:06 PM
Teachers and employees under the MPO scheme have continued their sit-in programme for a fourth consecutive day at the Central Shaheed Minar, demanding 20 percent of their basic salary as housing allowance.
The interim government was given until 12pm on Wednesday to respond to the demand, but it has yet to take any action.
However, protesters had not begun the previously announced “Shahbagh Blockade” programme as of the filing of this report.
Md Habibullah Raju, joint convener of the protest movement and president of the Bangladesh Teachers Forum (BTF), told bdnews24.com at 12:15pm: “We are giving it a little more time. The leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami wanted to talk to us. We went to their central office and spoke to some of the central leaders. A final decision will be taken on the ‘Shahbagh Blockade’ programme after discussing with everyone.”
He added that like-minded MPO-affiliated teachers and employees were observing a strike in their respective institutions on Wednesday.
The sit-in at Shaheed Minar, he said, would continue until the government accepted their demands.
The MPO-affiliated teachers and employees, under the banner of the Education Nationalisation Aspiration Alliance, have been demonstrating since Sunday.
They are demanding 20 percent of their basic salary as housing allowance, an increase in medical allowance from Tk 500 to Tk 1,500, and an increase in the festival allowance from Tk 500 to 75 percent of the basic salary.
On Tuesday afternoon, the protesters attempted to march from Shaheed Minar to the Secretariat but were stopped by police in front of the High Court’s Mazar Gate.
After staying there until 8pm, the teachers and employees returned to Shaheed Minar and spent the night there.
Alliance member secretary Principal Delwar Hossain Azizi had earlier announced that if the government failed to issue a notification fulfilling their demands by 12pm on Wednesday, they would enforce a blockade at Shahbagh intersection under the programme titled “Shahbagh Blockade”.
On Sunday morning, teachers and employees began a continuous sit-in programme in front of the National Press Club to push for these demands.
At 1:30pm that day, police requested that they move from the Press Club area, after which a section of the protesters decided to continue their sit-in at the Central Shaheed Minar. However, another section of the protesters refused to leave and remained in front of the Press Club.
Around 1:55pm, police again instructed the teachers to vacate the road in front of the Press Club.
When a section of the protesters resisted, police used sound grenades and batons to disperse them. Water cannons were also brought in front of the Press Club.
Following the incident, the alliance announced a nationwide strike at all private educational institutions starting Monday in protest of the police action.
On Sept 30, the government increased the house rent allowance for MPO-registered teachers and employees by Tk 500. When the announcement was made public on Oct 5, teachers rejected it and called for further protests.
The next day, the education ministry sent a proposal to the Finance Division to raise the house rent allowance to at least Tk 2,000 or Tk 3,000.
MPO-listed teachers and employees receive their salaries according to the national pay scale, along with a monthly medical allowance of Tk 500 and a house rent allowance that was recently raised from Tk 1,000 to Tk 1,500.
They also receive two festival allowances a year. After an increase in May last year, both teachers and employees now receive the allowance at the rate of 50 percent of their basic salary.
