The reopening of educational institutions last month brought a ray of hope to Kaiser Ahmed’s life that was turned upside down in the 18-month-long Covid-19 induced school closure.
The teacher of a kindergarten school in Nabiganj of Sunamganj was rendered almost unemployed after his school stopped paying salaries because of the financial crunch it faced since the closure in March last year.
The means of livelihood Kaiser took up in the meantime turned even dearer as he lost all his meagre savings he invested in opening a coffee shop in his locality for survival.
But when he heard that his school was reopening, he was delighted — not just with the thought of going back to the classroom again but also with a hope of sustained livelihood. His hope, however, was short-lived as his school, Learning Point Cadet Academy, declared shutting down permanently within two weeks amid a poor number of students rejoining.
“I am 35 years old and it is extremely difficult to get a new job at this age. I am trying to go to the Middle East to work as a construction worker. I am in contact with one of my elder brothers for this,” said a dejected Kaiser, who used to get a monthly salary of Tk 20,000 from the school.
Like Kaiser, thousands of teachers of kindergarten schools across the country are forced to exchange the tools of their trade — the traditional chalk and duster — with jobs like toiling in farms and selling garment products or even vegetables to make ends meet.
The teachers left the job as they were not getting salaries for months and were living inhuman lives. Kindergarten authorities cannot pay salaries to the teachers as guardians of many students did not pay their tuition fees.
The schools and colleges across the country reopened on September 12 after 543 days of closure — the longest disruption in country’s history –, but many kindergartens had to shut their campus permanently as most of their students shifted to government’s free primary schools while a good number might have dropped out, said the teachers.
The specific data on the numbers of closed-down schools is hard to come by as the government does not have any data in this regard. However, according to an estimate of kindergarten teachers’ associations, around 40 to 50 percent of kindergarten teachers have lost their job. Nearly 20,000 kindergartens are still closed and many of them will never open doors for students, said leaders of the association.
It is with this harsh reality the country is observing World Teachers’ Day today. The theme of the day is ‘Teachers at the heart of education recovery’.
Teachers in Bangladesh, especially at the kindergartens, normally do not have high salaries and also do not have savings to fall back on. As a result, they switched to different jobs to earn a living.
Amzad Hossain is one of them.
This Teachers’ Day, his heart is full of remorse. Amzad chose this profession as he wanted to nurture a generation of students.
“It is really heart-breaking and frustrating that I had to leave the noble profession as the pandemic upended everything. The profession has given us so much love and respect, but that alone cannot fill our stomach,” he said.
The 36-year-old head teacher of Vision International School in Chattogram said the authorities closed the school down in January as the total dues of house rent and others stood at Tk 7.5 lakh. The school had 450 students.
“I paid half of the dues by taking loans from others and from my little savings. But I cannot afford anymore.”
Amzad is now planning to start a small trade centring garment products, to run his three-member family.
Shafiur Rahman, a teacher of Rosedale Kindergarten in Meherpur, has a similar story to tell.
As everything came to a grinding halt during the pandemic, his school stopped paying salaries. Left with no other source of income, he opened a tea stall six months ago to run his five-member family in Borobazar area.
“There was a dignified position in society as a teacher. But I did not have any option. I know how people treat tea sellers in society,” he said.
Shafiur said they tried to resume the school, but only 20-25 students out of 300 turned up.
“I don’t think the school would be able to continue running in this situation.”
Iqbal Bahar Chowdhury, chairman of Bangladesh Kindergarten School and College Oikya Parishad, said an estimated 20,000 kindergartens could not open yet and many of them will never open due to the financial crisis.
“If the kindergartens were given financial assistance in the form of soft loans for owners and waiver of utility bills for the hard-hit schools, they can survive amid the crunch time,” he added.
Mizanur Rahman, secretary general of Bangladesh Kindergarten Association, said around 40 to 50 percent of kindergarten teachers have lost their job.
Regrettably, thousands of teachers have switched to other professions and they are working as masons, labourers at shops, selling seasonal fruits, vegetables, or driving auto-rickshaws and three-wheelers, he added.
Directorate of Primary Education Director (Monitoring and Evaluation) Uttaam Kumar Das admitted that many schools closed down during the pandemic with their students shifted to government primary schools.
“I am not aware of any plan to give financial assistance to the kindergartens,” Uttaam said.
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