Almost all non-government schools, madrassahs and colleges are still recruiting teachers having no certificates from the Non-Government Teachers Recruitment and Certification Authority in breach of the law. The Non-government Teachers Recruitment and Certification Authority Act was enacted on February 15, 2005 stipulating mandatory provisions for qualifying tests conducted by the authority for recruitment of teachers at non-government secondary schools, madrassahs, technical educational institutions and colleges.
The law was enacted aiming at curbing corruption in teachers’ recruitment and ensuring quality of teaching staffs.
Section 10(2) of the act stipulates that a person, who is not registered with, and certified by, the authority, will not be eligible for recruitment as a teacher at those educational institutions.
The authority arranges a 200-marks written test once in a year and the qualified candidates are given a certificate with validity for five years.
Top ranking schools and colleges including Viqarunnisa Noon School and College, and Ideal School and College in Dhaka have appointed a good number of teachers since the enactment of the law and most of them have not been registered with the authority.
The Viqarunnisa Noon School and College principal, Monjuara Begum, told New Age, ‘Registered teachers are not so available.’
The education ministry officials also said they had noticed that some institutions advertised in newspapers for recruiting teachers without mentioning the requirement of certificate of the authority.
‘In some cases,’ an official said, ‘some advertisements read that those who have no certificate of the authority can also apply for the jobs.’
The official said, ‘We also receive some letters from the high government officials for giving salary to the teachers, who have no certificate of the authority, from the exchequer in the form of monthly pay order.
The authority chairman Ashis Kumar Sarkar said, ‘The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education is responsible for implementation of the law. We are only entrusted with taking exams and issue certificates.’
The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education director (administration), Ataur Rahman, said that no teacher was enlisted for the monthly pay order without registration certificate.
‘However,’ he said, ‘we do not monitor whether the institutions recruit part-time teachers without registration.’
There are 34,412 non-government educational institutions which offer post-primary education and these institutions have more than 4 lakh teachers.
Courtesy of New Age
