The government is making a new plan for the development of lower secondary and secondary level education in the country. As part of the plan, the monitoring system of government and private secondary schools will soon be strengthened. And strict action will be taken against them if they are involved in coaching business. If a teacher of a private educational institution engages in coaching, the public portion (MPO) of the institution’s salary and allowances will be stopped. Necessary action will be taken by field level monitoring.
When asked, Education Minister Barrister Mohibul Hasan Chowdhury Naufel said, ‘The most important thing is to decentralize the manpower of the Ministry of Education. Out of 30,000 secondary and lower secondary schools, only 7,000 are government schools. Most of the institutions are private. We give money but we cannot interfere in management. If you do something, you will be sued. There is a technical problem. The government has no control over the government’s money, responsibility ministry, blame ministry. The reality is—the Ministry of Education cannot impose direct policies on private institutions unless they do so themselves. Structural changes are needed here. Organizations that don’t need MPO should stop it. And those who need MPO should pay it.’
There are currently 22 thousand 174 private educational institutions under MPO in the country. Among these institutions, 6 thousand 807 new MPOs have been registered in the last 15 years during the current government. These include schools, colleges and madrasas. Besides, there are non-MPO educational institutions scattered across the country.
According to the Ministry of Education, the government is allocating the salaries and allowances of the teachers and employees of the new MPO educational institutions every month. However, the management of private educational institutions is beyond the control of the government.
President of Bangladesh Teachers’ Association and spokesperson of Nationalization Liaison Forum of MPO educational institutions. Nazrul Islam Roni said that currently there are 5 thousand 242 academically recognized non-MPO educational institutions in the country. The number of teachers and employees in these institutions is about 80 thousand. Among these educational institutions, 2 thousand 737 got new MPO. Besides, there are more than 2000 non-MPO educational institutions outside the academic recognition. There are about 100,000 teachers and staff in these private educational institutions.
Initiative to close MPO in financially sound institutions
The Ministry of Education will take the initiative to close the MPO of those educational institutions that are financially sound in the capital including metropolitan cities and enroll those who are in urgent need of MPO. At the same time, the Ministry of Education will take measures to look into the financial affairs of these institutions. In this regard, Education Minister Mahibul Hasan Chowdhury said, why should we keep MPs of institutions which are financially sound. Arrangements will be made to include MPOs for those organizations where it is necessary. Moreover, many organizations do not want to belong to MPO, because of higher profits. It is important to think about that.
Corruption in institutions and managing committees
In case of corruption in the educational institution, measures are taken to close the MPO of the head of the institution. But even that does not reduce corruption. And to stop this corruption, the head and managing committee of the educational institution waste time by filing a case in the court. And for that reason, measures are being taken to close the MPO of educational institutions only if corruption is proven.
An official of the ministry, who did not wish to be named, said that the overall responsibility of managing private educational institutions is in the hands of the managing committee or the governing committee. No action can be taken against the institutions if they are run almost entirely on government funds. As a result, it will be possible to control them if the organization’s MPO is closed.
educationR Quality improvement and new curriculum implementation
According to the Ministry of Education, the MPO is suspended if the desired results are not obtained in the examination. Efforts will be taken soon to strengthen the educational institution monitoring system so that this situation does not arise. Strict measures will also be taken against the institutions which are negligent in implementing the new curriculum.
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