Siddiqur Rahman Khan
The education ministry has put into the final form the draft of an ordinance on the management committees of non-government educational institutions to replace the existing election system to choose guardians and teachers’ representatives.
‘Guardians of the students who become first in the final exams will be nominated representatives of guardians to the management committee of the institutions,’ according to draft ordinance, which has been sent to the council of advisers for its approval in the past week.
Senior teachers by turns will be nominated as teachers’ representative on the committee and the proposed ordinance has also barred government officials from heading the committees of more than three institutions.
‘A meeting of the council of advisers December 7 with the chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, in the chair has approved in principle the ordinance and after the final approval at the council’s meeting on December 28 the draft will be sent to the president for promulgation,’ education ministry officials said.
‘The government is going to promulgate the ordinance to stop the existing chaos and clash of interest in selecting committee chairman and holding elections to choose guardians and teachers’ representatives,’ a ministry official, involved in the ordinance draft preparation, told New Age in the past week.
‘At present some deputy commissioners, additional deputy commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers have occupied the positions of the management committee heads of about 50 to 60 institutions since November 2006,’ he said. ‘As such officers cannot give time to such a large number of committees, administrative and other activities in the institutions have been seriously hampered.’
The draft ordinance, Non-government educational institutions management committee ordinance 2008, said, ‘The deputy commissioner concerned will nominate the head of the management committee from among local educationists, Class I retired government officials, or officials who worked in autonomous organisations.’
‘There are some financial benefits of holding the positions. The deputy commissioners, additional deputy commissioners and upazila nirbahi officers have created the situation by taking the opportunity of a November 2006 directive in which the ministry ordered the authorities concerned to remove all politically nominated persons from governing or managing committees of more than 30,000 institutions,’ said a headmaster of a school in Dhaka.
Rules required removal of lawmakers, or persons nominated by them, as heads of such committees during the tenure of the caretaker government. The BNP-led alliance government completed its five-year tenure and handed power over to the interim government in October 2006.
Courtesy: newagebd.com
