Kindergarten owners demand incentive
School authorities are not being able to pay the house rents, besides the teachers’ salary, for eight months
Demanding to declare them as entrepreneurs, the country's kindergarten owners called upon the government to provide incentive to them.
Leaders and activists of National Kindergarten School College and Cultural Organisation Unity Council (NKSCCOUC) raised the demand from a demonstration staged in front of the National Press Club on Monday.
They also demanded precise directives for 2021 admissions and permission to give the annual assessment test.
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At the event, the organisation's President Md Ahsan Siddiqui said all the kindergarten schools and cultural organisations in the country run activities by their own finance. At present, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, they have no income.
There are about 65,000 kindergarten schools in the country, with around 12 lakh teachers and officials. These institutions are wholly dependent on tuition fee from students to run their activities.
Kindergarten teachers participating in the programme said, like other educational institutions, all the kindergarten schools across the country were shut down following a government order on 16 March last. School authorities are not being able to pay the house rents, besides the teachers' salary, for eight months.
If the situation prolongs more, almost 80% kindergarten schools are going to be shut down for good, putting the livelihood of over one million teachers and officials in terrible uncertainty, they apprehended.
Among others, the programme was also attended by Bangladesh Kindergarten School College Association President Sirajul Islam Khandaker and teachers – MA Mannan, Md Shariful Islam Swapan, Masud Akhand, Mukhtar Ahmed Opu and Priyashankar Bandopadhyay.
Awareness songs were also rendered at the event.
