-Masum Billah-

Non-government colleges under the National University (NU) have been experiencing the bitterness of dual administration and conflicting laws for decades, creating impediments to ensuring quality education and offering due benefits to the teachers working there.

The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education (DSHE) and the Ministry of Education stand as the entities that control and offer salaries and other benefits. On the other hand, the NU has the power just to publish the list and send university representatives to recruitment board while teachers are being recruited.

Many non-government colleges have thousands of teachers employed who don’t enjoy MPO benefits. Lack of coordination has surfaced owing to two different rules followed by the Ministry of Education and the NU in terms of running the affiliated colleges. The rules seem to be conflicting with each other that is causing lots of problems for both the teachers and the administration.

Let me adduce some examples to explain this. The non-government colleges have to follow the job regulations of the National University to run degree, honours and masters’ courses. While, the colleges have to follow the recruitment and administration procedure as per the non-government (schools and colleges) manpower and MPO rules of the Ministry of Education.

On 11 January, a new circular was issued to recruit principals by the Ministry of Education entailing a representative of the DC to be on committee. One representative of DSHE and another one from Education Board will also be there and there must be at least three candidates for each position advertised.

Non-government Colleges under the NU Suffering Due to Conflicting RulesAccording to the rules of the NU, there must be at least seven teachers to run honours courses in non-government colleges and another extra five teachers to run master’s degree, meaning that a total of twelve teachers should work in a college for offering honours and master’s degree.

In each department, there should be one professor, two associate professors, four assistant professors and five lecturers, totaling to a ratio of twelve teachers in each department. However, according to school and college manpower structure and MPO rules of the ministry, only three teachers can be employed to teach honours subjects in each discipline.

There is no clear instruction to employ additional teachers to run master’s programme. So, if any college employs professor and associate professor following the NU rules, the ministry does not accept it. In the eye of the ministry, it is illegal.

According to the rules of the NU, an assistant professor having five years of experience can apply for the position of principal or vice principal.

On the other hand, according to the rules of the Ministry of Education, to qualify as the principal of a degree college, the candidate must have three years’ experience as a principal or vice principal in an MPO-enlisted college and for the position of vice principal, the candidate should have work experience either as a principal in a higher secondary college or as a vice principal in a degree college.

It points to the confusion surrounding conflicting rules for recruitment.

Again, the law of the NU stipulates that a selection board needs to be formed directly by the governing body to recruit teachers in a college. However, the authority to employ teachers by the MPO institutions has been seized since employing teachers through NTRCA has been made compulsory instead.

In this connection, when additional teachers will be needed by colleges for running honours and master’s course, how the teachers will be recruited has not been specified in the rules of the Ministry, making it all the more ambiguous.

Owing to such confusion and conflicting rules, the teachers of the 350 colleges affiliated with the National University (teaching honours and master’s courses) are leading a very poor and inhuman life. They are getting deprived of MPO benefits as well. The colleges also suffer while recruiting teachers.

To solve this problem, it will be better to bring all the degree and honours non-government colleges under the NU and all sorts of rules and regulations stipulated by the National University should be applied for these colleges. On the other hand, the DSHE should look after all the schools and colleges up to intermediate level. The issue should be raised in the National Assembly for further discussion.

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The writer is President, English Teachers’ Association of Bangladesh (ETAB)