After recruitment of some 5,000 doctors recently, the government is now set to hire 1,532 assistant teachers on ad hoc basis for different government high schools in the country, The Independent has learnt from reliable sources.

“We are amending the existing appointment rules of 1991 to make way for the fresh recruitment of the assistant teachers for the government high schools,” officials said adding: “We have already sent a proposal to this effect to the Ministry of Public Administration.”
“As soon as we get the approval from the Public Administration Ministry, we will start the process of recruiting 1,532 assistant teachers for various government high schools across the country,” an official of the Ministry of Education said.
At the fag end of the tenure of the Awami League-led Grand Alliance government and just a few months ahead of the next national poll, the appointment of 5,000 physicians and then 1,532 assistant teachers is being seen by many as an election-year bonanza.
Sources said the officials of the Ministry of Education are in a real hurry to complete the appointment of the assistant teachers for filling in their vacant positions prompting political observers to believe that the measure is being taken on a “purely political consideration.”
At the same time, the government is also upgrading the position of the assistant teachers of the government high schools to a grade-1 non-cadre level with a view to enhancing the status of the high school teachers across the country and ensuring the quality of education.
“In first phase, we will upgrade at least 50 per cent posts of the assistant teachers to grade-1 level and then gradually we will complete upgrading the rest of their posts,” the Education Ministry official said.
He said the government is also working to fill in 214 vacant posts of headmasters at 317 government high schools with their assistant headmasters, who have already worked as acting headmaster for at least two years.
A high official of the Education Ministry told this correspondent that the government is actively considering raising the status of the government high school teachers with promotion and providing them with financial facilities for ensuring the quality of education.
“We cannot get quality teaching if the government does not provide necessary facilities to the teachers – the real builders of the nation,” he observed.
Before the Awami League-led government came to power, the status of the assistant teachers of the government high schools was grade-III. The present government upgraded their status to grade-II level in May 2012.
Of the 1,532 vacant posts of assistant teachers at various government high schools, 230 posts are for the subject of Bengali, 210 for English, 115 for mathematics, 163 for applied science, 98 for sociology, 120 for business education, 95 for geography, 120 for Islamic religion, 61 for agriculture, 80 for physical education and 90 for art.