The promotion to 32,000 head-teacher posts in government primary schools is stuck because of a backlog of litigation. With assistant teachers unable to be promoted into these vacant posts, the entire process of appointing an equal number of new assistant teachers has naturally also stalled. To revive the gridlocked education administration, those concerned say it is urgent to divide education-related cases into categories for swift disposal, and they have drawn the chief justice’s attention to assigning a special bench with specific jurisdiction.
About 13,500 cases against the education ministry are currently pending, it is learned. Of these, 8,558 belong to the secondary and higher education division, 1,120 to the technical and madrasa education division and 3,914 to the primary and mass education ministry. The fate of more than 100,000 teachers and staff — their appointments, promotions and transfers — is tied to these cases.
One of the central issues among them is a demand to count 50 percent of the service period of teachers from schools nationalised in 2013 in preparing a seniority (gradation) list, to grant them the head-teacher pay scale and to secure various financial and administrative benefits. A first writ on the matter was filed in the High Court in 2017, followed by several more. After the High Court ruled on the writs, the matter reached the Appellate Division in 2023 (Civil Appeal No. 73/2023).
The hearing on this civil appeal concluded on June 18, and the Appellate Division has set July 2 for the ruling. The promotion of 32,500 teachers and the filling of an equal number of vacant head-teacher posts nationwide are directly tied to this single case. According to the lawyers involved, the long-awaited ruling on July 2 would, if delivered, end this vast legal tangle and stagnation in the education sector.
Responding recently to a question raised on a point of order in the national parliament, Education Minister Dr A N M Ehsanul Haque Milon expressed his helplessness over the litigation backlog in the sector.
‘Because we are trapped in legal complications and a web of cases, we cannot reach any permanent solution to the teacher-appointment problem,’ he said. ‘Almost four months have passed since I took charge of this ministry. From the first week, we have been making relentless efforts in the courts to untangle these cases. But unfortunately, they are still not being listed by the Appellate Division. As a result, an acute teacher shortage has developed across the country.’
On the long delay in the promotion case for 32,500 teachers, the education ministry’s panel lawyer, Barrister Muntasir Uddin Ahmed, said the case had been taken up for hearing at the Appellate Division at least five times but could not proceed for various reasons, including reconstitution of the bench. After a long delay, however, the hearing had finally concluded, and July 2 had been set for the verdict. He expressed hope that the ruling would restore major order to the education administration.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report