I want to begin by telling a story. An old man had a horse by which he pulled a cart and earned money to maintain his family. Since he had to depend solely on the income of the horse, he took good care of it. Every day he gave the horse 20 kg food to keep it always healthy and strong. The horse had been truly a blessing and a good friend to the old man for a long time. Before death, the old man told his son to take care of the horse as he did, but the son disregarded the old man’s advice.
He reduced the horse’s food by 5 kg. But, to his great astonishment, the horse was working as much as it did during his father’s time. Some months later, he again deducted 5 kg from the horse’s food, yet the horse carried heavy loads easily, it seemed to the son. Some months later, he again deducted another 5 kg. Now the hose was fed only on 5 kg food. Nevertheless, the horse seemed to be working as hard as it had done in the past. The son was very happy that he was saving money by reducing the food of the horse. But soon one morning he found the horse lying dead in its shed. The son realised that he did a serious mistake by not following his father’s advice.
University teachers in Bangladesh had never been in such a disgraceful position, which they have now been thrown in by the 8th National Pay Commission. Since the independence of the country, no government made any effort to downgrade the status of the university teachers. Although, all these days becoming a university teacher was not as lucrative and profitable as becoming a bureaucrat; yet brilliant students of universities, who stood 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th in Honours and Masters examinations, preferred to becoming university teachers because, although not lucrative, it was at least regarded by people a prestigious profession. And another reason was that university teachers were not at least below the rank of any government official. But if the recommendations made by the 8th National Pay Commission are implemented, university teachers will not only lose their prestige, the whole teaching profession will lose its dignity; and in future no meritorious student will take teaching as a profession. One thing we all should remember that until today only those students who stay in the exams’ results within the first ten of the total number of students of a department dream to become the teachers of a university. So teaching at a university is still a profession that an extraordinarily brilliant student dreams for and takes by choice. But if the present pay commission’s recommendations are implemented, universities will fail to have meritorious students as teachers because then this profession will lose its dignity as university teachers have been downgraded and kept below the rank of the government bureaucrats in the present pay commission’s proposal.
I do not know if there is any country in the world where privileges, once given to people, are taken away. But the present pay commission’s pay scale has taken away not simply a privilege but a right of the university teachers that they have been enjoying since the birth of this country. All these years, university professors of selection grade have been on par with the secretaries on grade one, but for the first time in the history of the country, this pay commission has kept the university professors of selection grade below the rank of the secretaries. More disappointing and insulting for the university teachers, there have been kept four grades above the professors’ rank. Why are the university professors removed from the grade of the secretaries? Some secretaries and a vested quarter are trying to put forward as logic their misconception about the university professors of selection grade. They are propagating a lie that within 10/12 years a university teacher gets promotion to professor. This is perhaps partially true in that if a teacher has a PhD degree and at least 12 and in some universities more than 12 articles of which a fixed number has to be compulsorily written at different stages may be promoted to the rank of professor, but a teacher without a PhD degree has to serve at least 18 years to be promoted to professor if s/he fulfils other criteria of having required number of articles written compulsorily at different stages. And only one-fourth of the total number of professors of a university enjoys the fortune of having selection grade. As a result, in the big universities a teacher even after serving 30 years may not get selection grade. Even many professors retire without getting selection grade. Therefore, the observation of those who say that a university teacher within 10 to 12 years becomes equal to a secretary is a misconception. Moreover, a university professor of selection grade is on par with a secretary only by name, s/he is not entitled to any of the government facilities that a secretary enjoys.
Some people are often quoted in the newspapers as saying that the university teachers of Bangladesh are not as qualified as the teachers of other countries. Even if it is a bit true, the government should necessarily increase the salary of the university teachers to attract more qualified persons in this profession to ensure better education for the nation because we all know that “education is the backbone of a nation” and that “no nation can prosper without education”. But under the proposed pay structure of the 8th National Pay commission, universities will not have teachers even of the present standard in future. It is funny that while the neighbouring countries like India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka give salaries to university teachers four times more than their counterpart government officials to have the most meritorious students as the teachers of their universities, the present pay commission of Bangladesh has recommended to reduce the salary of the university teachers to serve what purpose only God knows. It is obviously a conspiracy of destroying the education of the country because the pay commission has downgraded the status of the university teachers at a time when the Education Minister more than often said that the present government would make a separate pay scale for the university teachers.
The proposed pay scale has done another bad thing. It has embittered the sweet relationship between the university teachers and their students. University teachers always feel proud of their students who are now high profile government officers. If an ex student of a university becomes a secretary or such a high profile government officer, the whole university feels proud of him. The university professors are intelligent enough to believe that the secretaries are the highest bureaucrats of the country and their teachers feel proud of them. They never feel jealous of the position of their students. Similarly, a secretary also respects his teachers. But the present pay scale has made the university professors and their students stand face to face, creating a hostile relation between them.
What makes the neighbouring countries of Bangladesh – India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka – have a separate pay structure for the university teachers and keep their salary above that of the highest bureaucrats? These countries know that without good teachers, quality education is never possible and that to get qualified persons as teachers of a university there has to be incentives for them. But Bangladesh seems to be realising just the reverse. We want to have better education by keeping teachers underpaid. When neighbouring countries are investing more money in the education sector, our bureaucrats believe investment in education is a waste of money. However, for some decades the country may not suffer any problem in the higher education sector. Even the country may save some money by downgrading the teachers and keeping them ill paid. Even if qualified persons do not join universities, there will be other persons to join there. Yet graduates will be produced from these universities. They will have certificates. Some of them will become high profile bureaucrats one day. But will they have education and knowledge enough to lead the country in the right direction? Are we not deliberately preparing to be turned into a meritless nation in future? We shouldn’t forget the proverb that ‘the cheapest thing is always in a bad condition’.
The writer is Associate Professor, Department of English, Jagannath University
Published on: http://www.daily-sun.com/printversion/details/68240/Downgrading-university-teachers-in-pay-scale
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