Tarique promises phased pay rise for primary, secondary teachers

He says better pay will let teachers devote more time to students

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has pledged to gradually increase the remuneration of primary and secondary school teachers, saying better pay is essential to improved quality of education.

He made the commitment on Wednesday while responding to a supplementary question from NCP lawmaker Hasnat Abdullah of Cumilla-4 during the parliamentary session.

The prime minister said teachers cannot be expected to deliver quality education without proper training and adequate remuneration.

"If we cannot properly train our primary and secondary school teachers and if we cannot increase their remuneration, we cannot expect them to deliver better outcomes," Tarique said.

"We believe their remuneration needs to be increased gradually, and we will implement this step by step, God willing."

He said many primary school teachers are compelled to finish classes early to take on secondary jobs or engage in farming because their salaries are insufficient to support their families.

"We have seen similar situations among secondary school teachers," he said.

"We believe teachers' remuneration needs to be increased so that they do not have to seek additional work and can devote their time and talent to their students."

The prime minister also recalled that the current fiscal year's budget allocates 2 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) to the education sector.

Responding to another supplementary question from BNP reserved-seat lawmaker Shammi Akhtar, Tarique said the government has adopted a phased plan to provide school uniforms to primary school students from Class 1 to Class 5.

He said the programme would also include the distribution of school bags to those students.