The government is set to pay the retirement allowances and welfare-trust dues of 75,000 MPO (monthly pay order) teachers and staff. The money will be paid simultaneously across the country’s 64 districts on 15 August. For this, the government has decided to give a special block allocation of 2,000 crore taka (20 billion) to the sector. Teachers and staff fear, however, that the full amount may not be paid to them all at once. At present, 110,000 applications are pending with the retirement board and welfare trust, needing 10,326 crore taka to settle.
Officials said Prime Minister Tareque Rahman will inaugurate the programme as chief guest at a central event at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital on 15 August. The prime minister has directed the finance ministry to give the special 2,000 crore taka block allocation. It is the largest one-time disbursement in the history of the retirement board and the teachers-staff welfare trust.
No one paid since 2022
Md Abdul Khaleq, secretary of the education ministry’s Secondary and Higher Education Division, said no teacher or staff member who retired since 2022 had received retirement money, and that they had long been living in hardship. To ease their suffering, the prime minister had taken a special decision, and the dues of 75,000 teachers and staff would be paid together on 15 August. The finance ministry had been directed to give a special 2,000 crore taka allocation, settling 75,000 applications at the retirement board, of whom about 44,000 would also receive welfare-trust money. By initial calculation, each teacher or staff member would receive an average of 5 to 6 lakh taka, though the final calculation was still under way. For the first time, the secretary said, the money would be sent directly to bank accounts through iBAS++, using everyone’s national ID, leaving no scope for brokers or middlemen.
Retired in 2023, still unpaid in 2026
Md Shamsur Rahman, a retired teacher of Damodar Muktamoyee Secondary School in Khulna’s Phultala upazila, retired in February 2023 after 33 years and six months of teaching, and applied for retirement benefits the same month. Nearly four years on, he has not received the money. “The soles of my shoes have worn out, but I haven’t seen the money. I’ve come to Dhaka again and again with an ailing body, and each time I’ve been told to wait,” he said. Rangpur’s retired teacher Rabiul Islam Rabi said: “I taught all my life. Now I can’t even get money for treatment. I just come to find out when I’ll get paid.” Mymensingh’s Shafiqul Islam said years were passing in the hope of the money, and that age and suffering were both growing. Retired teacher Nazma Akhtar said: “I badly need money for treatment. But each time I come I hear the file is in process.”
Doubts over getting the full amount
Although the government has moved to settle 75,000 applications, the teachers and staff say the government’s aim for now is mainly to return the principal amount deducted from teachers, while the profit due from the investment or the real financial loss is not yet clear. Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon and education secretary Md Abdul Khaleq met the prime minister on Thursday and put forward several proposals, including paying the retirement and welfare money in phases, and paying the principal now with the rest a year later. But the prime minister did not agree, and directed the 2,000 crore taka block allocation for now because of the severe fund crunch at the retirement board and welfare trust.
How the crisis built over three years
An inquiry found the retirement board and welfare trust had effectively broken down for three main reasons: a severe fund crisis; major weaknesses in fund management and the investment of money in controversial banks under the former Awami League government; and the ineffectiveness of the management committee together with software complications. Under the ousted Awami League government, large sums from the retirement board and welfare trust were moved from state banks to several private banks. About 1,700 crore taka is currently stuck at First Security Islami Bank, Citizens Bank, Premier Bank, Exim Bank, NRB Bank, Bangladesh Commerce Bank, Global Islami Bank, Social Islami Bank and Union Bank. Not getting this money back has created a large cash-flow shortfall.
A huge backlog of applications
Retirement board secretary Principal Md Mosharraf Hossain Liton said more than 67,000 applications were pending at the board, needing about 7,176 crore taka to settle. Welfare trust secretary Principal Md Yusuf Ali said about 43,000 applications for welfare benefits, filed since April 2023, were pending, and that settling just those 43,000 needed 3,150 crore taka — while the trust had only 600 crore taka. A large part of the retirement and welfare money comes from the teachers and staff themselves: 6 percent of their basic pay is deducted monthly during service for retirement, and 4 percent for the welfare trust. In addition, under a recent government decision, 100 taka a year is taken from each student (70 taka for retirement and 30 for welfare). The rest is met from government funds and interest on the deposits.
According to the retirement board, the 6 percent deductions bring in about 70 crore taka a month, with another 3 crore taka a month in FDR interest. But an average of 1,000 retirement applications are filed a month, needing 115 crore taka a month to settle — a monthly shortfall of 42 crore taka, or 504 crore taka a year.
Software down, manual verification
Alongside the fund crisis, technical problems have made the situation harder. Board officials said that with control of the old software lost, digital verification of applications almost stopped, so every application now has to be checked manually — making each application take far longer to settle than before.
Teachers ask: what about the profit?
Retired teachers and staff have a big question: the money deducted from their pay was invested in various banks for many years, so what happens to the profit that should have come from that investment? According to teachers’ union leaders, the 15 August disbursement is an important step in ending a long deadlock, but will solve only part of the overall crisis, as thousands of applications remain pending, needing several thousand crore taka — and the pressure on the retirement fund will not fully ease until the huge sums stuck in various banks are recovered.
Bangladesh Teachers’ Association secretary general Md Zakir Hossain said hundreds of thousands of retired teachers and staff were living in hardship — some without money for treatment, some struggling to fund their children’s education — and that no one had received retirement or welfare money for more than three years. All dues must be paid quickly, he said, and not just the principal but the full amount due under the rules, or the teaching community would not accept it.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report