Shortage of teachers at pry schools in 12 Tangail UZs

TANGAIL Sept 22: Acute shortage of teachers has been hampering academic activities at the primary schools in 12 upazilas of the district, sources at the district primary education office said.

A total of 1,024 posts have been laying vacant at different primary schools in the upazilas. Among them, some 111 posts are of headmaster and some 913 are assistant teachers'.

As a result, the primary students have been deprived of proper education in the beginning of their academic life.

"We have been struggling hard to teach the students properly due to the shortage of teachers," several teachers of different primary schools in the town told this correspondent.

"Providing quality education to the primary students has been hampered seriously for a long period due to shortage of teachers," said Harun-or-Rashid, joint secretary of District Primary Teachers' Association.

Of the 111 schools which are running without headmaster, some 20 are in Ghatail upazila, eight in Sakhipur, eight in Basail, seven in Sadar, 24 in Kalihati, 15 in Madhupur, 21 in Nagarpur and eight in Dhanbari.

On the other hand, appointment of headmasters at 64 of the schools, nationalised recently, remained suspended due to pending cases filed by the senior assistant teachers of the schools in the court against the process.

The plaintiffs lodged the cases alleging that they were performing their duties at the schools as acting headmasters in absence of headmasters before nationalising the schools but they were not promoted as headmasters.

Also their salaries were not increased in the gazette published by the government after nationalising the schools.

District Primary Education Office in Tangail sources said authority concerned is aware of the situation. The process is going on to fill up the vacant posts. "We will overcome this situation very soon by getting teachers as per our requirements," officials said.