A SECONDARY schoolteacher entered my office room with teary eyes. Anxiety has made him upset. He has taught in a school since its establishment two decades ago. He has done the job without any salary or money under the monthly payment order scheme. Father of five daughters, he has led a miserable, uncertain and inhumane life for 20 years.
The man and his family were extremely happy about the enlistment of the school in the monthly payment order scheme. It happened along with 2,639 institutions that came under the scheme. But disappointment gripped him after he had come to know that he had pay a large amount of money to the headteacher. Besides, the headteacher appointed someone else, wife of an influential ruling party leader, to his position.
In breach of the MPO Guideline 2018, the headteacher along with the chair of the school management committee, who is also father of the headteacher, appointed her and forged documents overnight to show that she had experience of teaching for 20 years. The headteacher, who has made the school his own kingdom, did not allow the teacher in distress in the school.
When the school was enlisted in the monthly payment order scheme, he became jobless. He listened to what he said so that he could get over his agony a bit. This is a common scenario in all institutions newly enlisted for the monthly pay order. School management authorities removed teachers from job sometimes levelling against them allegations of having worked against the government or by putting a political tag to them to recruit inefficient, poorly qualified people in exchange for money.
Before the 2018 national elections, the government published a circular on June 12, 2018 on non-government educational institutions, school and college, employees and the monthly payment order policy of 2018. The policy came to be abused heavily at madrassahs and technical educational institutions, In 2019, the government enlisted 2,639 institutions for the monthly payment order based on four indicators which included the results in public examination. The institutions were selected from more than 9,000 entities. Most of the institutions were set up during the rule of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, which sought to hit at the political inclination of the people appointed. Such a hypothesis made gave birth to such tragic stories.
I discussed the issues with the authorities concerned. I also proposed a solution, but to no avail. This is a national issue. I was determined to go deep into the issue. The appointment of the teacher who visited me was legal and he had continued with teaching-learning activities since 2001. As the policy suggests, he was about to get the salary but the headteacher created the problem. I vowed to take up the case and move forward.
In 2021, the government again took an initiative for the monthly payment order for new institutions. It enlisted 2,716 institutions in 2022. Tragic stories came up more than it they did in 2018. Teachers from different parts who became jobless started visiting the office every day. The bottom line: members of parliament and ministers were directly involved in the recruitment trade. In stead of directly lodging any complaints against the ministers and the members of parliament, I advised the teachers to submit complaints in writing to the director general of the educational statistical office.
Ten teachers submitted complaints. A match of the 10 applications, including that of the teacher who visited me, with the BANBEIS database showed that all of them had worked legally with the institutions from the very beginning. Besides, the school management committees and headteachers, with the help of ministers and members of parliament, recruited al least 5鈥�8 teachers in breach of the MPO policy, removing genuine teachers by put political tags to them.听 BANBEIS data show that in the school of the teacher who visited me, there were seven staff, including five teachers, in 2013. After the MPO announcement in 2019, the figure increased to 13 in 2020.
Any recruitment without Non-Government Teachers鈥� Registration and Certifications Authority certificates after 2014 is a complete violation government rules. Using the forged documents, incompetent teachers were recruited, removing dedicated, professional teachers. Such teachers have also also drawn their salary regularly, crossing past a three-tier check 鈥� upazila secondary education officers, district education officers and deputy directors of respective area. The Awami League government listed 5,355 educational institutes in the monthly payment order scheme in 2019 and 2022.
I explained the matter to the director general and he asked me to prepare a proposal and give a layout of the solution to the problem. We argued that such illegal recruitment of teachers destroys education administration, causing misuse of public money and creates a flow of illegal money. People with NTRCA certificates are not recruited. One instance of malpractice in educational institutions create multiple problems the monthly payment order scheme. Above all, the congenial atmosphere of educational institutions are harmed and the integrity of the government is questioned.
As data on the teachers of all educational institutions from 2013 to 2022 are available with the BANBEIS database, a cross-check of teachers鈥� list with data collected from educational institutions through online surveys every could resolve the problem. If the upazila secondary education officers, district education officers, the deputy directors and the secondary and higher education directorate verify the list against the BANBEIS database at the time of the release of money under the monthly payment scheme, the problem could be resolved.
It would save public money, reduce the malpractice and discrimination in education administration management, ensure quality teachers for quality education, ensure the recruitment of people with NTRCA certificates, cut down on the MPO-related cases in court and create a congenial atmosphere on the education scene.
In view of the BANBEIS proposal, the Secondary and Higher Education Division issued a circular on April 6, 2023. The circular prohibits the recruitment of teachers and employees using backdated memo. Even in the case of the payment of salaries of institutions under the monthly payment order, it is mandatory to verify the data of teachers and employees at the upazila, district, regional, departments level with BANBEIS data. Soon after the circular had been issued, the educational statistical office published the data of teachers and staff. We have not spent a single penny. Yet, the recruitment trade stopped..
The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education investigated the case of the teacher who visited me and ordered the payment of his salary. There are many like him in institutions newly enlisted for the monthly payment order. They are helpless and have accepted such happenings as their fate. All this calls for reforms in education administration.
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Habibur Rahman, an assistant professor of political science, is an assistant director (administration) at the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics.