A rough tally of the extra costs: a) Bringing government primary school salary scale in line with other government salaries with similar required educational qualifications for 155,000 teachers -- Tk. 75 crore; b) Raising salary subvention to 95-100 percent of basic salary and increasing other allowances for 80,000 registered non-government primary school teachers -- Tk 45 crore; and c) Raising subvention for salaries of some 300,000 teachers of non-government secondary schools, madrasas and colleges to 100 percent of their basic salary -- Tk. 300 crore.

Not included above is the demand by over 10,000 teachers in some 4,000 community schools, who receive an "allowance" of Tk 750 from the government. The logic for government allowance, rather than a salary, was that the teachers were community appointed for community-established schools and were expected to be supported by the community. These teachers have joined the other teachers demanding to be treated and paid by the government as regular teachers. Also not included are demands by teachers of vocational and technical schools.

Better remuneration for teachers is not a matter of great debate. There is no rhyme or reason for paying government primary school teachers less than other government servants for whom similar education and skills are required, except that the government has gotten away so far with this palpable unfairness. There is no plausible defence for the lead partner of the ruling coalition to make specific promises regarding increasing the remuneration of teachers and then not to do anything about it for four years until teachers lock the classrooms, march on the streets and even resort to mass hunger strike.

Teachers deserve better status and rewards. Students also have the right to better service than what they are getting now. At least 48 eight percent of the students enrolled in class one dropped out by the time they reached class five, according to management information system data for 2004 of the Directorate of Primary Education. It is this writer's experience, which is corroborated by other concerned observers, that most students in class three or four in government primary schools cannot read and comprehend a simple text, such as a newspaper story, in Bangla. The statistical confirmation of this situation is found in the Education Watch 2002 report which revealed that one-third of all primary school students, after five years of schooling, remained functionally illiterate.

Education Watch studies show that in secondary education, of 100 students enrolled in class six, on average, 40 reach class ten and only 20 pass Secondary School certificate (SSC) examination. Fifty-seven percent of the graduate teachers in secondary school have been recipients of third division degrees. Half of the secondary teachers have no pedagogic training. Parents spend on average Tk 4,000 per year per secondary school child in private tutors' fees in addition to other educational costs. At the primary level, the average spending per child on private tutors is Tk 1,000.

Neither the government nor the protesting teachers have made a mention of the poor deal the children in school are getting and how the increased spending on teachers may benefit the students.

The government will no doubt do its best to defuse the explosive situation and teachers will have some of their demands met. Whatever gains the teachers make this time, they will not be satisfied and will raise their demands for higher remuneration and better recognition and status again. The next round of demands by teachers will be to "nationalize" all teachers and make them government servants. How will this improve teacher performance, raise accountability of teachers and schools and raise the level of student learning?

Teachers should get their salary raise. They deserve more than what may be granted by the government. Once the deck is cleared by removing some of the anomalies in teachers' salaries, serious strategizing should begin to link teachers' remuneration with student learning. For one thing, the acute shortage of teachers of English, science and mathematics can be solved only by offering special incentives and offering special contracts at a premium to qualified people, some of whom may not be "card-carrying" teachers.

Public spending on education including teachers' salary should increase both as a proportion of the government budget and of GNP. At the same time, systems of accountability of schools and teachers to parents and the local community must be developed and enforced at the school level. Performance standards and criteria for teachers and schools as well as student learning must be developed and tied to rewards for teachers and schools. A serious dialogue and exploration of possibilities must begin now to avert the cycle of unfulfilled political promises, teacher protests, grudging acceptance of some demands which satisfies no one, and a repeat of the vicious cycle after a short interval.

There are examples scattered around the country of outstanding institutions in the mainstream system -- other than cadet colleges and private schools -- with excellent student performance.

Ways must be found to multiply these good examples. This cannot happen by government edicts. The key characteristics and circumstances of these models need to be understood and promoted on a wider scale through trial and experimentation. Community organizations, parents, NGOs and academics should be involved in this effort. Resources must be set aside for this purpose, which can be drawn from major development programs in primary and secondary education -- the Second Primary Education Development Program (PEDP II), Secondary Education Sector Improvement Project( SESIP) and Teacher Quality Improvement (TQI) Project. Efficacy and better use of other substantial resources such as those for stipends in primary and secondary schools must be re-examined.

Creative approaches are needed which will inevitably require deviation form the straitjacket of government Project Proforma (PP) -- a bureaucratic device to keep activities and budgets confined to a blueprint prepared at the beginning of a multi-year project, which in course of implementation turns out inadequate or even inappropriate, but cannot be changed. The ultimate objective of the projects mentioned are better performance by students, which must be the touchstone for all decisions in the education sector.

Manzoor Ahmed is Director of BRAC University Institute of Educational Development.