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Published : 04 Nov 2015, 10:07 PM
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid issued such an order applicable to Secretary Nazrul Islam Khan and departmental heads after the draft education bill was made public without his knowledge.
The upshot is that files that were otherwise cleared at the secretarial level will now have to be sent to the minister for approval.
The minister issued the order, marked "confidential", on Oct 26 through his Private Secretary Najmul Haque Khan. It was sent to the departmental heads and the secretary’s office for their information.
bdnews24.com has a copy of the minister’s order.
Earlier, Nahid had curtailed some of Nazrul Islam’s powers in consultation with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina following complications in Class-XI admissions in July.
In that order, the secretary and other officials were told not take any decisions without the minister’s knowledge.
Four months later, on Oct 20, a draft of the education bill that made no mention of any stringent punishment for leaking question papers despite such incidents, was posted on the website.
bdnews24.com and other media units reported on the shortcomings in the law dealing with question leaks, triggering nationwide criticism.
The education ministry backtracked by withdrawing the draft within seven days.
A senior education ministry official told bdnews24.com that an additional secretary had posted the draft bill at the instruction of the secretary without informing the minister.
“After this, the minister summoned all officials concerned with the relevant files. The notes revealed the education secretary’s instruction authorising the posting of the draft bill on the website,” the official said.
Nahid issued the official order soon afterwards, stripping the secretary of all powers.
The order said all circulars, guidelines, postings for people’s views or appointments had to have the minister’s sanction.
However, a senior ministry official speaking on the condition of anonymity, told bdnews24.com the secretary had transferred two assistant teachers while the minister was abroad.
On Nov 3, Assistant Teachers Md Abdulla-al Masud and Md Abdus Zaher were transferred on the basis of orders signed by Senior Assistant Secretaries Fatema Tul Zannat and Kauser Nasrin respectively.
Before the minister’s order was issued, lecturers and assistant teachers could be transferred by the secretary without the minister’s approval.
Nazrul Islam, a special BCS official of 1982, will go on his post-retirement leave on Nov 30.
Education Minister Nahid could not be contacted as he is currently in Paris, taking part in the UNESCO General Conference.
The education secretary did not receive any of the several calls made to him. He did not respond to SMS either.
