Finance Minister AMA Muhith came down hard on the teachers of 37 public universities who stayed away from work yesterday protesting "discrepancies" in the eighth national pay scale.

"Their [the teachers') work abstention has no justification," he told reporters at the secretariat.

"I am extremely surprised that the most educated section [of our population, has gone for such a movement due to their lack of knowledge."

On Monday, the cabinet approved the new pay scale for civil servants with a minimum basic salary of Tk 8,250 and maximum ofTk 78,000 per month. The pay scale kept the grades as proposed in the draft.

Soon afterwards, the teachers announced the protest programme, saying they were expecting a separate pay structure.

Later, Cabinet Secretary M Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said a cabinet committee

was asked to sit with the teachers and discuss theirproposal.

Yesterday, the teachers of the 37 universities did not attend classes or hold examinations as planned.

As per a decision of the Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA), a platform of the teachers, silent processions were brought out on different campuses, reports our correspondents.

At the programmes, the teachers said they were eagerly waiting for a response from the cabinet committee.

On the Dhaka University campus, over a 100 teachers brought out a procession from the Aparajeyo Bangla around 11:00am. It ended near the Central Shaheed Minar.

Prof Farid Uddin Ahmed of DU's Economics department said they would continue their movement unless their four demands were met.

Farid, also the president of the FBUTA, they would continue their movement unless their four-point demands is met.

He also called upon for inclusion of a teachers' representative in the cabinet committee.

The agitations by the teachers apparently irked Muhith.

"1 want to find out where their dignity was not upheld," he said.

While speaking to reporters, the minister at one point brought allegations of irregularities against teachers.

"They |teachers] are given promotions as per their will. And that is what I am going to look at in the cabinet committee," he said, adding: "such practices should be controlled."

" I am extremely saddened by the teachers'behaviour," he said.

According to Muhith, no proportion is maintained when it comes to the promotion of teaching staff. He said the number of

lecturers was fewer than that of professors.

"The number of professors is not equal to the total number of other employees.

The system needs a reform,” he claimed.

The remarks by Muhith, however, was criticised by a number of public university teachers on the social media.

Some even demanded that the minister reigns.

Contacted, AJM Shafiul Alam, a member of Dhaka University Teachers' Association, said the minister's remarks were impolite and baseless, and that had intensified the teachers' grievances.

He said for becoming a professor a DU teacher needs a minimum service of 12 years, apart from having enough publications and a PhD degree.

Khandakar Shariful Islam, vice president of FBUTA, said the minister made "irresponsible" remarks

which were "unexpected".

According to the new scale, he said, the professors are in grade-3 whereas the secretaries in grade-1. "Itis discrimination," he claimed.

The teachers have been waging movements since May 14 and observed work abstention on different occasions after the secretarylevel committee submitted a review report on the pay commission's proposal.

They had rejected the proposed structure, terming it "disgraceful and discriminatory".

Their four-point demands include formation of a commission to initiate an independent pay scale for the public university teachers, immediate revision of the 8th national pay scale, keeping senior professor and senior secretaries on the same pay scale and at an equal level of payment and benefits as enjoyed by the same grade government officials.