The certificate holders of Non-Government Teachers’ Registration and Certification Authority (NTRCA) blocked the capital’s Shahbagh intersection on Wednesday, demanding panel-based appointment. 

They blocked the area for around six hours to press home their demands after holding hunger strikes, human chains and demonstrations in front of Jatiya Press Club and Shahbagh Public Library for 200 days.

Besides the panel-based appointments, they also demanded suspension of registration examinations until the appointments of all the already certificate obtainers and exclusion of index holders from the next recruitment public notification.  A transfer system for the index holders, which means those who already got jobs in different education institutions, was demanded too.

Kamrul Islam, one of the protesters, said they held hunger strike and other progrmmes for long time demanding jobs as per the circulation the NTRCA at first issued on the methods of the appointment.

“But a public notification is going to be issued without paying attention to our demands. Our demand is that everyone should be given jobs beginning from the first panel, who got registered at first. Before this, we will not accept any mockery in the name of public notification,” he said.

Meanwhile, traffic movement of the intersection and its adjoining roads was disrupted  due to the protest programmes from around 11:30am.

At that time, police tried to remove them from the street but failed. The agitating certificate holders later left the street around 4:00pm after Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni asked them to hold a meeting with her, police said.