Govt primary school headmasters in Bangladesh yet to get paid in new scale

Headmasters of about 60,000 government primary schools are not being paid the salary fixed by a new pay scale even one and a half year after their promotion to the Class-II category from Class-III.

They are still being paid as Class-III government employees since the public administration ministry has not yet given its approval.

“There are complexities over the teachers’ pay in the new scale as there was no separate gazette for them,” Riaz Parvez, convenor of the Bangladesh Government Primary School Headmasters’ Association, told bdnews24.com.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had announced the promotion of government primary school headmasters to second-class gazetted officials on Mar 9 last year.

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MOPME) issued an order on the day with revised pay scale of the teachers.

Parvez said they had been put in the Tk 6,400 salary scale as Class-II government officials.

The teachers had contacted the ministry and directorate concerned several times to no avail, he said.

Parvez said the media would be briefed on the issue on July 31.

Officials at the mass education ministry told bdnews24.com that the finance ministry, CAG’s office, MOPME, and primary education directorate have written to each other several times on the matter.

Additional Secretary Jnanendra Nath Biswas of the MOPME said they had sent the file to Prime Minister’s Office to resolve the issue.

“But they sent it back and asked us to take the public administration’s approval,” he said.

The public administration is yet to respond.

Biswas said they would issue a circular once they got the public administration’s approval.

“They (the government primary school headmasters) will then get salary in the new scale,” he added.