Quality of education questioned
The quality of education is hindered as most of the president posts of the managing committees at around 450 high schools and madrasas in seven upazilas of the district is occupied by influential members of the ruling political party.
To select a president, guardians of students first select the school managing committee (SMC) members; later, a president is elected. However, this process is maintainede only on pen and paper at the moment, especially at the madrasas.
The main roles of the SMC president include appointing the headmaster, development works, and utilisation of government funds for the school.
Allegations against these presidents include misbehaving with the teachers. They often fail to properly monitor the school activities as they live in Dhaka or other distant places, and remain busy with their political agenda, say teachers.
Md Kamrul Ahsan, headmaster of Bhabanipur High School inIndurkani upazila, said teachers often complain of failure to take signatures from the managing committee president on important papers, including salary sheets, and a lack of proper etiquette.
An SMC president should hold at least a graduation degree, added Ahsan.
In addition, many exercise the right to become SMC presidents of more than one institution by giving donations or using political influence, further compromising on the quality of education at the secondary level.
“If a person is the president of more than one institution, he cannot manage the institutions properly,” he said.
Professor Sheikh Sayedur Rahman, a retired principal of a government college, said the system of selecting the SMC president must be changed.
Ramesh Chandra Biswas, district education officer (DEO) at Pirojpur, said they often get complaints from the teachers of improper behaviour by the SMC presidents.
“In many cases, the managing committees appoint weaker teachers and support staff, to pay lower salaries. Our hands are tied as they have the power to do so.”
“I have taken up the matter with higher authorities, but the problem persists as the SMC president is selected locally according to the law,” added the DEO.
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