Shawdesh Desk: Academic activities at most of the government colleges across the country are being hampered due to acute shortage of teachers.

Sources in the education ministry said about 3,585 posts of teachers lie vacant at the government colleges across the country.

Teacher shortage is severe mainly at colleges located in districts and upazilas while the colleges which offer honours and masters courses are the worst sufferers of teachers’ crisis.
According to Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education (DSHE), there are 632 government colleges across the country. Of them, there are 329 old colleges nationalised till 2016 while the remaining 303 colleges were nationalised after August 2016.

There are about 13,400 teachers in the old colleges. Around 3,585 posts at these colleges have remained vacant for long.

The government colleges are also faced with absence of teacher’s positions in compulsory subjects like English, Bengali and Mathematics.

Talking to the Daily Sun, several principals of government colleges said the teacher crisis was created due to a lack of timely promotions and lack of new posts creation. Moreover, lengthy appointment procedures have caused the vacancies.

The college authorities wrote to the Education Ministry to create new posts in the colleges soon to deal with the crisis situation but there is no progress, they said.

According to the sources, there is only one teacher in Bengali, one in physics, one in philosophy, two in political science, two in sociology, two in management and two in botany at Rangamati Government College. Kurigram Government College has been facing an acute shortage of teachers, which is hampering its academic activities. Only 74 teachers are teaching students at the college.
Only an assistant professor is teaching students in physics department while two in English, four in Bengali, four in chemistry, and four in Mathematics at the college.

Talking to the Daily Sun, Kurigram Government College Principal Prof Abdul Mannan said, “We have limited number of teachers against huge number of students at our college. We informed the higher authorities of the situation.”

There is only one teacher (lecturer) in Bengali, one in philosophy, one in history, one lecturer in sociology, and one teacher in mathematics department at Khagrachhari Government College.

The teachers’ crisis is not only at the colleges of remote areas but also at the government colleges in Dhaka.

Sources said only 107 teachers are teaching 20,000 students at Kabi Nazrul Govt College in Dhaka. There are only two teachers in physics, four in chemistry, five in Bengali and three in mathematics.

When asked, Kabi Nazrul Govt College Principal Professor IK Selim Ullah Khondaker told the Daily Sun that the college is suffering due to the teachers’ crisis.

Mentioning that the ratio of teacher-student should be ideal to ensure quality education, Prof IK Selim Ullah, also President of BCS General Education Association, said they have informed the Education Ministry of the teacher shortage and the ministry assured them of providing necessary teachers.

Adequate teachers should be appointed at the government colleges to turn Bangladesh into a middle-income country and also to help achieve the SDGs by 2030, he added.

Insiders said at least seven teachers for every subject of honours and 12 teachers for every subject of masters course are needed as per teachers’ pattern, but the reality is that many colleges do not have half of the required teachers.

Some college authorities said they hire guest teachers without any proper training, thus undermining the quality of education.

Meanwhile, the Education Ministry sources said the ministry is going to propose a special BCS to fill 3,585 vacant posts quickly at different government colleges to meet teacher crisis.

On January 4, a meeting was held at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) led by Director General-2 (Additional Secretary) Azizur Rahman where they discussed the list of vacant posts in various departments under the Education Ministry.

Later, the PMO directed the Education Ministry to take necessary steps to verify whether it is possible to hold special recruitment (Special BCS) to fill the vacancies.

Afterwards, on January 6, the Education Ministry asked the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) to verify the information and make a proposal by January 25.

The DSHE is verifying the information and will send a proposal to the Ministry of Education soon. Afterwards, a meeting will be held at the Education Ministry and a proposal will be sent to the Public Administration Ministry to hold the special BCS.

DSHE Director (Administration and College) Shahedul Khabir Chowdhury said, “We got a letter from the ministry. It is being verified whether special BCS can be taken for the vacant posts. We will inform the ministry soon in this regards.”

Education Ministry officials said the recruitment of teachers from the education cadre in every general BCS is not enough for filling the posts of teachers at the government colleges. As a result, the teacher crisis in government colleges across the country is intensifying day by day.

But a group of teachers are also against the special BCS (education cadre) saying that there is scope for appointing less qualified teachers and it will affect the quality education.