The adaptation process of more than 12,000 teachers and officials of 302 colleges has been delayed due to various complexities.
According to the Prime Minister’s declaration, non-government schools and colleges have been made public, but the teachers of these educational institutions still remain private. And their job has not been nationalized.
The process is being delayed as the persons, who were against the adaptation (or cadre affiliation) of non-government college teachers, are supervising the process, sources said.
However, the officials of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education claimed that the scrutiny or verification of the documents is a lengthy process.
On 14 July 2015, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced to build a government school and a government college in each upazila.
On May 2016, the Prime Minister announced to adapt or nationalize 302 private colleges. According to the declaration, 325 high schools and 302 colleges were said to be nationalized.
On August 2018, the government issued an order to adapt 271 private colleges in the first phase. Later, more 31 colleges were announced to nationalize separately. Overall 302 colleges were declared as government colleges.
The work, to bring teaches and staffs of those colleges under MPO, has been going on since the announcement. However, authorities concerned have completed the scrutiny process of only 25 colleges during this long time.
After issuing the order, 507 teachers of these colleges went into retirement over the last 16 months, and they are being deprived of various government facilities including pension. Moreover, more than 3000 teachers went into retirement after the Prime Minister’s announcement.
The delay of the implementation of the Prime Minister’s declaration has made the teachers and employees frustrated and tarnished the image of the government as well.
According to the source, verification of the documents is the main tool of creating barrier on way to teachers’ adaptation. The officials in charge of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) have verified the same papers three times in the last 3 years. Thus the work has been delayed.
As a result, teachers and staffs are getting salaries as per the private rule and retiring from their jobs without getting pension benefit.
About the adaptation of the teachers, president of the Government College Teachers’ Association (Sakshis) Johurul Islam said, “The Prime Minister made country’s 302 private colleges the government colleges to provide quality education in remote areas at a low cost. But, some people are opposing this.”
“Despite the past evidence, the movement was led by former secretary of the Dhaka Education Board Professor Shahedul Khabir Chowdhury to ensure that teachers’ job in selected colleges would not include in the cadre. The teachers of these colleges could not join as the cadre teachers in the face of agitation,” he added.
He further said, “Shahedul Khabir is the current director of that department of Secondary and Higher Education where the task of paper verification for teachers’ adaptation is going on. Besides, those who wore the ‘No BCS No Cadre’ logo on T-shirts during the movement roamed the capital and posted a profile picture on Facebook. As a result, the work has been disrupted in all steps.”
Under the circumstances, on November 2019, teachers of the enlisted colleges met with Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni. After being informed about the whole matter, the minister visited Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education and directed to dispose those files quickly.
After that, the files of 140 colleges have been sent to the ministry from DSHE. However, in the first 3 years, only 85 files have been disposed from the ministry. Out of the 302 colleges, the files of 78 colleges are still stuck in DSHE.
Contacted, Director General of Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) Professor Professor Dr Syed Md Golam Faruk told The Bangladesh Post, “The job adaptation process is complicated. There were many problems of the documents. Therefore, it may take some time to scrutinize the documents. But the allegation of delay in this purpose is not correct. We are trying to get things done very quickly.”
About the documents, Golam Faruk said, “The disposal of the files has been done in three steps. Firstly, DSHE scrutinizes all documents. Then it goes to the Education Ministry and at last it will go the Ministry of Public Administration. Now, the files are in the Education Ministry.”
He also said, “We will not give any specific time when the verification of papers will end. Ministry of Public Administration can say it.”