Teacher Appointment, Transfer, MPO: Riddled with graft
The secondary education sector is mired by various forms of corruption and irregularities including illegal financial transactions for the appointment of head teachers and officials in other roles.
A study even found instances where aspiring head teachers or assistant head teachers had to pay between Tk 3.5 lakh and Tk 15 lakh to get the appointments in schools.
Illegal transactions have also taken place for the transfer of teachers, their inclusion to the Monthly Pay Order (MPO) benefits, during schools' academic approval, school inspections, etc., Transparency International Bangladesh (TlB) said in thestudy on secondary education made public yesterday.
The study tilted "Secondary education programme: Governance challenges and way out" was unveiled during a webinar.
The study also found that while there is an online process for non-government teachers to apply for MPO benefits, they still "had to pay money" at four stages.
Under the MPO scheme, the government pays teachers of non-government schools 100 percent of their basic salaries. The teachers also get small monthly payments as allowance through MPO.
Many government school teachers and upazila education officers have been working at the same place for over 10 years using their influence and money. Many officials of Directorate of Inspection and Audit (DIA) are also working at the same station for long as they have scope to "earn money" in those stations.
However, there is a provision that a person cannot stay at the same station for more than three years.
The study also shows that supervision of secondary schools is facing hurdles in the absence of sufficient manpower at field level offices.
The study, quoting the Directorate of Inspection and Audit, said 1,577 teachers were recruited as assistant teachers using fake teacher registration certificates, certificates showing computer expertise and other academic certificates between 2013 and February 2020.
"We have seen illegal transactions in teacher appointments, transfers and other [administrative] actions. We have seen lack of good governance, transparency and accountability in the secondary education sector," TIB Executive Director Iftekharuzzaman said at the programme.
Commenting on the lack of a system of proper accountability, monitoring and supervision in the sector, Iftekhar said: "E-GP [Electronic Government Procurement] is widely used in government procurement, but it has not been introduced in the secondary education sector yet. As a result, irregularities and corruption are going on, which is a real concern and becoming a major obstacle in building a knowledge-based society."
THE STUDY
TIB collected information from 54 secondary level educational institutions between May and October 2019. Of the schools, 36 were non-government MPO schools and the rest are government schools from 18 upazilas.
They collected information through focus group interviews of 325 regional and field level officers of Department of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE), teachers, school managing committee members and others. They also collected information from annual and other reports of secondary level education offices till September 15 this year-.
Taslima Akter, a researcher of the study, said unauthorised financial transactions between Tk 3.5 lakh and Tk 15 lakh take place for the appointment of head teachers or assistant head teachers to a school.
She said the head teacher or assistant head teacher needs to pay the amount to local political leaders, members of school managing committee or governing body.
Illegal financial transactions of Tk 50,000 to Tk 2 lakh take place when a Non-Government Teachers' Registration & Certification Authority (NTRCA) recommends a teacher to a school. In this case, the aspiring teacher needs to pay the money to the head teacher, members of the school managing committee or the governing body.
Unauthorised financial transactions between Tk 2 lakh and Tk 3 lakh take place for people to become librarians in schools. The aspirant pays the money to the head teacher, members of school managing committee or the governing body.
Unauthorised financial transactions between Tk 50,000 and Tk 5 lakh take place when a DIA official goes for school audits. School teachers pay the amount to DIA officials.
A non-government teacher has to pay Tk 5,000 to Tk 1 lakh to DSHE officials and staffers for inclusion into the MPO scheme, Taslima said.
Illegal transactions of Tk 1 lakh to Tk 2 lakh centring teacher transfer and transactions of Tk 1 lakh to Tk 5 lakh take place when someone seeks academic approval for the school. Victims pay the amount to the DSHE and education board officials, said Taslima.
The study also found an instance when a project director of ICT education at the secondary and higher secondary levels was made "Officer on Special Duty" when allegations of corruption surfaced against him.
There are specific allegations of officials of the same project spending Tk 2.25 crore on training manuals, certificates and training materials without tenders.
There are also allegations that project officials took "honorariums" without attending the training.
The study said supervision of academic and other activities at schools by supervisors are facing a lot of hurdles as many positions of overseers are currently vacant.
The study said around 38 percent of 64 district education officers, 64 percent of 513 upazila assistant education officer posts and 12 percent of 513 upazila education officer posts are vacant now.
Moreover, 58 percent of auditors out of 130 positions at the DIA are also vacant now.
The study said the Covid-19 pandemic has brought new challenges to the education sector. It said many students cannot take online classes due to lack of access to digital devices and internet facilities.
It also said the difference in education access between rural and urban, rich and poor has widened further and many students have been facing learning losses.
Iftekharuzzaman said although nearly 11 years have passed since the formulation of the National Education Policy, many important issues have not been implemented and progress to make an education law was not at the expected level.
Comparing to the international standards, budget allocations in education is inadequate and as a result, achievement in the infrastructural and institutional facilities sector is unfulfilled.
Facilities and scope of promotion of teachers is also limited. Many teachers' salaries, allowances and incentives are comparatively less here than in other sectors, he said, adding that "as a result, the chances of excellence in secondary education are naturally low".
WHAT AUTHORITIES SAYS
DSHE Director (administration) Prof Shahedul Khabir Chowdhury, Dhaka Education Board Chairman Prof Nehal Ahmed and DIA Director Prof Waliualla Md Ajmotgir all said they would be able to comment only after seeing the TIB report.
They, however, said they will take actions against officials involved in irregularities and corruption if they get specific allegations.
Shahedul and Nehal both raised questions about the credibility of the TIB study. "All these allegations are false," Nehal said.
"Nationally, there are some questions about TIB study and methodology," Shahedul added.
"I can't comment about the past but after joining DIA in December 2019 I have transferred many from their workstations," Waliualla said.
RECOMMENDATIONS
TIB in the study recommended proper planning in light of the education policy, and implementation of the policy. It also suggested taking steps to increase capacity of teachers to take online classes, bringing back all students who are at risk of dropping out, decreasing rural-urban and other gaps in education.
It also suggested increasing the education budget, formation of a teacher appointment commission to appoint non-government teachers and creating scope for promotion of teachers.
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