Staff Reporter :
The academic activities in the primary schools across the country have badly been affected due to the acute shortage of teachers for a long time.
Primary and Mass Education Ministry sources said around 45,000 assistant teachers’ posts have been lying vacant for a long time.
Such a scenario of the shortage of teachers is badly affecting the education of the children and at the same time the existing teachers are compelled to undertake additional workload.
The total approved posts of assistant teachers in the country’s 65,566 primary schools are 4,28,701, sources said. Of the existing teachers, some 10,000 have retired recently and many are in the pipeline of retirement.
Sources said when a big chunk of teachers’ posts lay vacant, it badly affects the entire education system in the primary level.
In Gaibandha, a total of 941 posts of assistant teachers and 190 posts of head teachers have been lying vacant there for long time in 1,463 primary schools in the district. Right now about 6,884 assistant teachers are rendering services, sources said.
This vacancy is mostly in the remote and char land areas because the teachers don’t like to stay in the remote areas or in the char lands as the communication is not smooth, the sources said.
The vacancy of teachers is mostly found in the coastal districts, char lands and the peripheral areas of different districts of the country.
Due to the shutdown of the schools during the pandemic for two years, the necessity of the teachers were not felt much but now as the educational institutions are open, the crisis have been felt badly.
Sources said the primary school students are already lagging behind of learning due to the pandemic. Now they are attending schools in-person but the shortage of teachers is acute.
Against such a backdrop, the government has taken initiatives to recruit 45,000 teachers against the vacant posts in the primary schools. The vacant posts will be filled in through recruitment process in three phases.
A total of 13,09,462 eligible candidates will contest against the vacant 45,000 posts, which means one candidate will vie against 29 others.
As part of the recruitment process, the government on Friday held the first phase of test in 22 districts simultaneously where 3, 96,764 candidates participated.
In the second phase on May 20, a total of 4,84,725 candidates will contest and the examinations will be held in 30 districts.
The final phase of examination will be held on June 3 when 4,27,973 candidates of 31 districts will contest against the vacant posts
Meanwhile, an allegation of the question paper leak in the recruitment examination has been surfaced in the social media before holding the test.
However, the Primary and Mass Education Ministry has brushed aside the allegations and said it is nothing but a ‘rumour.’
Hailing from the Eden College examination centre, State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Ministry Md Zakir Hossain told the journalists that the question paper leak in the primary teachers’ recruitment test is not based on fact, rather it was a ‘rumour’.
“The information of the question paper leak spread in the social media is completely a rumour. We don’t have any such information,” he added.
He further said, the monitoring cell actively works to prevent such activities in time of holding the any test.
“If anybody has information about question paper leak, the source can inform us. We will take active quickest steps as per rules,” the State Minister asserted.
About the recruitment of primary assistant teachers against the vacant seats, the state minister said, the government has undertaken various initiatives to fill the vacant posts of teachers in the primary schools to fill the gap so that education can be smooth.
