Legal action if edu institutes gave false info: Dipu Moni

Education minister Dipu Moni yesterday said legal steps would be taken against educational institutions that have provided “false information” to be included in the monthly pay order (MPO) scheme.

“If we find that any educational institution has provided false information and breached the conditions of MPO enlistment, we will cancel the order of MPO enlistment of that institute,” Dipu Moni said in press conference at the Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (Banbeis) office in the capital.

She said that there were no scope for unqualified educational institutions to get MPO facilities. “We followed the MPO enlistment policy properly,” she said.

The government on October 23 brought 2,730 new non-government educational institutions from across the country under the MPO scheme, under which the government pays basic salary of teachers, as well as some monthly allowances from the public fund.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina revealed the names of the new institutions, that include 1,651 schools and colleges, 557 madrasas, and 522 technical and vocational institutions. The decision will take retrospective effect from July this year.

According to the new list, 439 are junior secondary  schools (Class VI-VIII), 995 secondary schools (VI-X), 68 higher secondary schools, 93 colleges (XI-XII), and 56 degree colleges (XIII-XV).

Among the madrasas are 357 Dakhil, 128 Alim, 42 Fazil and 29 Kamil-level institutions.

In 2010, when the last inclusion to MPO was made, some 1,624 institutions were brought under the scheme.

Up till now, more than 4.5 lakh teachers and employees of 26,340 educational institutions have been enjoying MPO benefits.