45 primary headteachers’ pay upgraded to 10th grade

Six years after High Court ruling, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education implements pay scale upgrade with gazetted officer status

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The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education has upgraded the salaries of 45 government primary school headteachers to 10th grade, granting them gazetted officer status.

A long legal battle concluded on Monday as the ministry issued a gazette notification raising their salaries from 11th grade to 10th grade.

The notification, signed by Joint Secretary Sebika Sultana, cited the High Court division ruling of Feb 25, 2019, on a writ petition filed in 2018, the civil review petition verdict of Mar 13, 2025, and the finance ministry’s opinion of Oct 6, 2025 as the basis for the pay upgrade with gazetted status.

The ministry said the headteachers would be entitled to 10th grade benefits retroactively from Feb 25, 2019, the date of the High Court’s original ruling.

On Mar 9, 2014, the then Awami League government had announced the promotion of government primary headteachers to the second class.

A notification was issued by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education the same day, but it later fixed the pay of trained headteachers at grade 11 and untrained headteachers at 12th grade.

The decision sparked protests by the Bangladesh Government Primary School Headteachers Association and other teachers’ organisations.

On Mar 4 last year, 45 aggrieved headteachers, led by the association President Riaz Parvez, filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the differentiation between 11th and 12th grades.

On Feb 26, 2019, a High Court bench of Justices Naima Haider and Khizir Ahmed Choudhury directed that the salaries of government primary school headteachers be upgraded with gazetted officer status.