Eighty-eight registered non-government primary schools in Phulbari upazila are unlikely to be nationalised in the first phase due to
delay in dispatching necessary documents to the district education office.Worried over the uncertainty, teachers of the schools alleged that a section of officers at the Upazila Education Office deliberately
wasted time in sending the essential documents, as they did not get the “speed money”.
Many teachers, wishing not to be named, said an amount of Tk 3,000 was demanded from each of the schools for putting forward the documents in time.
Voicing frustration, Quamruzzaman Bakul, a non-government school teacher, said: “Our (teachers) existence will be at stake if we fail
to get our schools nationalised in the first phase.”
He went on: “We don’t know which government will assume office after the next election and what will be the decision of the new government.
So, we’re passing days in anxiety.”
Brushing aside the allegations made by the teachers, upazila education officer Muhiuddin Ahmed attributed the delay in sending the documents to various reasons.
He said the delay in dispatching the documents relating to the schools to the district education office occurred as those were not submitted by the teachers in time.
Kurigram district primary education officer Syeduzzaman said they did not send the proposal over the nationalisation of all non-government registered schools in Phulbari upazila to the Primary and Mass Education Ministry as the upazila education officer failed to submit the necessary documents in time.
Meanwhile, the teachers met the Deputy Commissioner of Kurigram who was said to have assured them of taking necessary steps in this regard.
On January 9 this year, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced that the government agreed in principle to nationalise all the registered primary schools of the country in three phases.
On March 3, the government also issued a gazette notification in this regard, asking the authorities concerned to send necessary documents of all registered non-government schools to the respective district education office.
(UNB, Kurigram)
