S.A Shofiee, Sylhet :
Academic activities at government primary schools across the Sylhet Division are being seriously disrupted due to shortage of teachers. Some 2,178 posts of school teachers are now vacant and out of them 728 are headmasters, official source said.
Although assistant teachers are filling in for the headmasters, the overstretched teachers find it difficult to concentrate on the class. This eventually affects the quality of education, said teachers and leaders of primary teachers’ associations of Sylhet.
Educationists have long been pointing out that shortage of teachers is a big hurdle to ensure quality education, and that the only way to overcome this is to recruit adequate qualified teachers.
Masuk Miah, President of Soroibari Government Primary School in Komolganj upazila said three teachers are taking care of their 340 students for months now.
‘We have Five posts for teachers, but we are just the three of us at the moment. We actually had four teachers, but one of them is now working in another school on deputation. This has made our job even more difficult,’ He added.
Asked how they take care of everything, he said, ‘We are facing problems in carrying out academic activities, but we have no choice. The teachers take extra pressure as they need to hold classes. I also try my best to manage the classes.’
He said the authorities repeatedly assured them of appointing teachers, but nothing actually happened. ‘Still my school is doing well.’
Bimol Dash, Secretary of Bangladesh Government Primary Assistant teachers Association Sylhet, said it was extremely difficult to ensure quality education with only one or two teachers.
‘Things get really difficult when the head teachers go to the district or upazila education offices for official purposes. During those times, only two or three assistant teachers have to look after everything,’ he said.
‘Primary schools have four teachers on average. If one teacher attends training, falls sick or goes on leave, children’s education suffers badly.’
About the crisis of headmasters, he said the head teachers played a vital role in almost every school activity – from managing daily schedule and the staff to implementing academic calendar to monitoring co-curricular activities.
The assistant teachers filling in for the post often find it difficult to make many decisions, he added.
Every year, a huge number of posts fall vacant temporarily, but for a significant period, because of training, retirement, resignation and death, said officials from primary and mass education ministry.
Besides, many female teachers take maternity leave while others take leave for medical reasons or to perform hajj. It takes several months to fill the posts, they added.
Also, there was a long-standing wrangle over the qualification for teachers to be promoted to the post of head teacher. In fact, several cases have been filed over a government decision on recruiting head teachers, adding to the present crisis.
AKM Safayet Alam, director of Sylhet Directorate of Primary Education, said a process of recruiting teachers was underway. Government was recruiting teachers from time to time.
