The teachers have threatened to continue their ongoing movement until these finance-related demands are fulfilled.

The representatives of the Bangladesh Non-government Primary Schoolteachers' Association are supposed to meet with the prime minister (PM) today when a decision about their demands is expected to come out.

Akkas Ali Sheikh, secretary general of the association, said, "We are optimistic about realising our demands as we are demanding only what the prime minister had promised us before the last election."

He said the PM instantly ordered the bodies concerned to thoroughly examine the teachers' demands when he met her on January 4.

"In a meeting with Harris Chowdhury [political secretary to the PM] on January 16, we came to learn that the government has accepted 10 of our 14 demands," he said.

Introducing the same pay-scale for the non-government primary headmasters as the government ones, assigning the post of secretary to the Non-government Primary Teachers Welfare Trust to the association's president or secretary general, cancelling the order to recruit science teachers, and solving other administrative problems have been emphasised in these 10 demands, Akkas said.

Meanwhile, a source in the primary and mass education ministry said the government is likely to do "something" about the teachers' demands for 100 percent salary, full house rent and medical allowance, and full bonus soon.

But there are few possibilities at once about accepting their main demand for gradual nationalisation of their services, the source added.

The government's failure to take decision over nationalisation of the primary schoolteachers' services is one of the main reasons for postponing their grand rally today where the PM was expected to make a positive announcement in this regard, the source said.

Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman also told journalists a few days ago that the government is unlikely to nationalise the services of the non-government primary schoolteachers immediately due to pressure on the economy.

On December 29, the non-government primary schoolteachers postponed their fast-unto-death programme following the government's assurance to meet their demands within 15 days.

They also presented the 14-point alternative demands softening on their previous one-point demand to nationalise their jobs, considering the government's financial constraints. They rather demanded that the government nationalise their jobs in phases.