by S Dilip Roy in The Daily Star, Dec 23, 2022
Teachers and officials engaged in temple-based pre-primary education programmes in Lalmonirhat are in trouble as they are not getting salaries for 18 months.
There are 77 temple-based pre-primary schools in 77 temples in five upazilas of Lalmonirhat district where 30-50 students study in each school every day from 9:00am to 12:30pm.
According to the sources at Hindu Dharma Kalyan Trust, a 3-year temple-based children and mass education programme was started in 2002 by taking up the project for pre-primary education of children.
Since then, pre-primary education programmes for children have been conducted through the Hindu Dharma Welfare Trust under the Religious Affairs Ministry with government funding.
The education programme of this project started in Lalmonirhat district from 2011. The monthly salary of 77 teacher in these schools was fixed at Tk 5,000 each.
Shapla Roy, a pre-primary school teacher at Raipara Durga Temple in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila, said after passing her master’s, he joined the temple-based pre-primary education project as a teacher. But she has not been paid for the last 18 months.
“I have to borrow money from others to survive… But I have continued the education programme and teaching children,” she added.
Prashanta Sen, another pre-primary school teacher at the Megharam Durga temple in Sadar upazila, said he is barely making ends meet as he has an alternative source of income. But the teachers who depend only on the salary of this education programme are in dire straits.
“I don’t even know when I will get my salary again. When we contact the office, they say arrangements are being made very soon,” he said.
Anil Chandra Barman, a parent of a student studying in this school, said their children are learning a lot by coming to this school.
“It’s unfortunate that teachers are not getting their salaries. If this continues, soon they will stop teaching and look for other alternatives… eventually children will be deprived of education,” he told The Daily Star.
Contacted, Lalmonirhat district temple-based pre-primary education programme assistant director, Ataur Rahman said not just teachers, no one involved in this project is getting paid. He himself has not been paid for 18 months, Ataur said.
“I heard that the finance ministry has allocated money and the project authorities are working in this regard. I hope we will get paid soon,” he said.
According to him, this temple-based education project is playing a role in developing the knowledge of children. “We haven’t been paid for a long time, yet all of us — teachers and officials — are performing our duties with due diligence.”
Ataur said the number of temple-based pre-primary schools across the country is 6,400 and equal number of teachers are teaching in these schools. However, none of them are getting paid at the moment, he said. https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/temple-based-education-teachers-not-getting-salary-18-months-3202851
