Over 9,000 job seekers in limbo
ver 9,000 jobseekers have been waiting for final results of their viva for recruitment at a project run by Bureau of Non-formal Education (BNFE), due to delay on the bureau's part in finalising a key component of the project.
The candidates passed the written test held in late 2019 and faced the viva-voce in different phases in January last year for the post of upazila/urban programme coordinator (UPC) under Out of School Children Education Program (OSCE).
OSCE, a sub-component of Fourth Primary Education Development Program, has been designed to ensure education for children aged 8-14 years who could not be enrolled in school or dropped out. Around Tk 3,200 crore was allocated for the programme, which was supposed to run from 2018 to 2023.
Initially, the programme was planned to provide education to around 9,31,000 such students through 31,000 learning centres in 61 districts. A total of 53 NGOs have been appointed as Implementation Support Agencies by BNFE to run these learning centres.
However, BNFE could not finalise the list of students yet.
BNFE was supposed to recruit 300 UPCs to ensure effective management of the learning centres. The UPCs are also responsible for maintaining coordination between NGOs and BNFE's district-level offices, according to the project description.
The bureau published a vacancy announcement on June 30, 2019 to recruit the UPCs. Institute of Education and Research (IER) of DU was appointed as the consultant to administer the exam.
Over 24,000 candidates applied for the posts. The written and viva examinations were completed by January 25 last year, but the final results of the viva-voce did not come out even after 23 months.
"When we requested BNFE to publish our results, they told us to go to IER. When we went to IER, authorities said they were appointed just to administer the exams; only BNFE can publish the final results," said a candidate, preferring anonymity fearing reprisal.
Another candidate said one BNFE official informed them to contact the NGOs, as they shall get salaries from them. "This is ridiculous because as UPCs, one of our responsibilities will be to monitor effectiveness of the learning centres run by the NGOs. How can we ensure quality monitoring and supervision if we have to work under the NGO authority?"
Contacted, Prof Abdul Halim, director of IER, said their responsibility was only to administer the exam to ensure quality and transparency. "We don't know anything about result publication and the project's future plan."
According to the project requirement, BNFE formed five-member committees in every ward of 61 districts. In 2019, these committees were tasked with making the list of eligible students.
By January 2020, a list of 931,000 students was submitted to BNFE.
The bureau has asked committees to further verify the list and submit a verified final list, which has not been completed in the last two years.
Ataur Rahman, BNFE director general, said, "It's not possible for us to recruit UPCs without finalising the list. Because, there might be some places where we may not open learning centres due to unavailability of eligible students."
He gave the pandemic as the reason for delays.
"Once the list is finalised, we shall start the learning centres and recruit the UPCs," he said.
One thing should be clear: once recruited, the UPCs will work with the NGOs. They will not be the employees of BNFE, as the bureau just facilitated the recruitment process to ensure quality and transparency, he added.
Comments