NATIONAL dailies shed light on the likelihood of the government setting new standards for enrolment of students and performance in public exams for schools to retain the Monthly Pay Order (MPO) facility. The reports also added that a draft of the new MPO guidelines prepared by the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education proposed increasing teachers and staff at schools, madrassahs and colleges. Even though the government is going to change the MPO guidelines top Education Ministry officials are uncertain when the new changes come into effect. The proposed guidelines include secondary schools and colleges needing 60 and 40 SSC examinees, for urban and rural areas respectively, and a 70 percent pass rate.
The current MPO guidelines of 2010 state that urban and rural secondary schools and colleges need to have 50 and 30 SSC examinees and a 50 percent pass rate. Dakhil madrassahs require 40 and 30 Dakhil examinees respectively, and 70 percent pass rate. Currently madrassahs of urban and rural areas need to have 30 and 20 examinees respectively and a 50 percent pass rate. According to reports, the government takes care of the basic pay of a teacher at a non-government school up from 50 percent when the programme started and there are criteria in terms of school facilities, number of students, and performance, on the basis of which a school is entitled to MPO. Many have alleged that the criteria are not followed strictly and in many areas, political consideration and skewed evaluation processes determine the entitlement to MPO, according to a World Bank report released in the previous year.
The government spends about Tk 5,000 crore a year for 4.7 lakh teachers and employees of more than 27,000 MPO-entitled educational institutions. The draft also proposed increasing the numbers of subject teachers and staff to 16 from the current 9 in junior schools, to 22 from 16 in secondary schools, and to 25 from 24 in intermediate colleges. It also proposed increasing the posts of teachers and staff to 22 from 20 in Dakhil madrassahs, and to 32 from 29 in Alim madrassahs.
DSHE officials said about over 100,000 posts of teachers and staff will be created as a result of the increase of positions. Of them, about 24,000 posts will be created with junior secondary schools, 25,300 posts with secondary schools, 1,400 posts with intermediate colleges, and 50,000 posts with Dakhil and Alim madrassahs. Interestingly, a top Education Ministry official said that although the government is revising MPO guidelines but the actual possibility of providing MPO facilities to new educational institutions is very slim, as our Finance Minister did not set aside any money for MPOs in the last two budgets.
While we appreciate the proposal being made by the government but its implementation is the issue that remains problematic. Creating a benchmark for more teachers means that more children will have access to education but only if the teachers are qualified. The criteria mentioned earlier have already been ignored or misused in different situations as admitted by the Education Minister.
It is a good sign that the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education cancelled the Monthly Pay Order of 273 non-government teachers after corruption had been identified in the enlistment process, but it does not mean that efficiency levels have increased as a direct result of that. The question is if government is in a position to ensure as well as monitor that qualified and experienced teachers are employed in the different educational institutions. Apart from that, a looming problem still persists which is the lack of a committed budget allocation to help the new proposal be implemented. It puts the issue of commitment in doubt as there is no certainty that the plan will actually be implemented and that too effectively.
