Rangamati Correspondent :
Fate of around 6,000 children reading at 86 primary schools run under a five-year long project of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) at four upazilas of the district has become uncertain since the schools have not been brought under recent nationalisation process of the government.
The schools were set up at the four upazilas – Bilaichhari, Baghaichhari, Jurachhari and Rajasthali, under ‘Fundamental Education Support’ project of the UNDP and Chittagong Hill District Development Facility (CHTDF) in 2009. As a result, around 6,000 children of the upazilas got access to primary education while 336 teachers were appointed locally on contractual basis for six years till 2015.
As the project period ended in June of 2015, the fate of the schools, their students and teachers became uncertain.
Meanwhile, Rangamati Zila Parishad had been running the schools with their own funding till the end of the last year. But from January of this year, the honorarium of the teachers was stopped which led them to financial hardship.
The teachers said, they were hopeful that their schools along with others across the country would be nationalised following the process undertaken by the government; but they are after all frustrated to see that their schools were kept out of the nationalisation process.
In this connection, Chief Executive Officer of the Zila Parishad S M Zakir Hossen said, “The decision to set up schools under the project for temporary period was wrong. Besides most of the schools are situated on government’s reserved forests and khas lands, but the requirement is to set up schools on privately-owned lands. As a result, due to the failure to fulfil necessary requirements, the schools were not nationalised.”
He further said, “Still we have maintained communication with concerned authority. Besides, we have brought the situation before the Prime Minister’s consideration and she has already ordered the concerned department to nationalise the schools.”
“Meanwhile, the process has started and hope that the schools would be nationalised soon,” he added.
