Officials of Non-Government Teachers Registration and Certification Authority said on Tuesday that they did not get qualified aspiring teachers to recommend for about 77,000 vacant positions in different secondary to tertiary level non-government educational institutions.
They also said that crisis of teachers was acute in some science-based subjects including physics, chemistry and information and communication technology.
Poor salary structure is the main challenge to get and keep the qualified teachers in the non-government educational institutions under the monthly pay order system, they added.
The authority on the day organised a participatory meeting at its office in the capital with journalists working in the sector to uphold its overall activities.
The government formed the NTRCA in 2005 to provide certificates following tests to aspiring teachers of the non-government secondary level schools, higher secondary level colleges, degree colleges and equivalent madrassahs and technical educational institutions.
From the 1st to the 17th batches under the teachers registration examinations, the authority provided 6,76,662 certificates.
From the 13th batch, the NTRCA got the responsibility to give recommendations to the educational institutions under its jurisdiction of the aspiring teachers against their vacant positions.
Mohammad Mofigur Rahman, the newly appointed chair of the authority, said that around 96,000 teachers鈥� positions were vacant before the recently held 5th recruitment recommendation process.
He mentioned that under the 5th recruitment recommendation process, the authority recently recommended 22,021 aspiring teachers against vacant posts and 18,648 of them joined work so far.
Around 12,000 to 13,000 positions of teachers for subjects including physics, chemistry and information and communication technology remain vacant now, he said.
鈥楶oor salary structure is the main reason for which we are struggling to find qualified teachers,鈥� he said, adding that the students with science background usually go for professions such as physicians, engineers, bankers and government jobs.
The primary school teachers also do not want to be teachers under the MPO system due to poor salaries, the chairman continued.
鈥楾he teachers from the schools under the MPO system even join Grade 3 government jobs as they think that in government jobs they will get some facilities which are not available in these schools,鈥� he further said.聽聽
According to the Non-Government Teachers Registration and Certification Authority Act 2005, one of its responsibilities is to set the standard of teachers, assess their qualifications and undertake necessary initiatives regarding these.
Replying to a question on enhancing the standard of the teachers, Mofigur Rahman said that they were trying to hold one teachers registration examination per year.
The authority recently has taken an initiative to provide E-certificate online using website for saving the time, labour and money of the candidates and the NTRCA and ensure authenticity of the certificates.聽
As per government rules, since 2020 the age limit for aspiring teachers for the jobs has been fixed at maximum 35 years.
Since 2023, the validity of the certificate was fixed at three years.
Under the authority about 36,000 non-government educational institutions are registered, said officials.
The meeting was attended, among others, by the authority members, Mohammad Nure Alam Siddique and Shahadat Hossen, directors Md Abdur Rahman and Kazi Kamrul Ahsan, deputy director Md Ruhul Quddus Chowdhury and secretary AMM Rizwanul Haque.