HC orders govt to grant 10th grade scale to 45 headmasters

The High Court (HC) yesterday asked the government to grant 10th grade scale to 45 headmasters of government primary schools.

The court also ordered the government to notify their names in the official gazette as class-two gazetted officer-headmasters of government primary schools since March 9, 2014.

The HC bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury came up with the verdict following a writ petition filed by 45 headmasters including Reaz Parvez, president of Bangladesh Government Primary Headmasters Association.

According to the HC order, the headmasters will get Tk 16,000 basic salary per month instead of Tk 12,000, which is under the 11th grade, Reaz told The Daily Star.

Petitioners' lawyer Advocate Salahuddin Dolon told The Daily Star that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on March 9, 2014 directed the authorities concerned to upgrade the status of head teachers of government primary schools to second-class, and the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education issued a gazette notification to this effect on the same day.

According to the gazette notification, head teachers of government primary schools were supposed to get salary at 10th grade. But the ministry strategically fixed the salary scale of government primary school headmasters at 11th grade which is contradictory to the 2014 gazette notification.