Children deprived of proper education

Lack of teachers and logistics seriously hamper education in these schools and students suffer a lot for lack of facilities.

There are 463 primary schools, including government, MPO (monthly payment order) enlisted and non-government ones in nine upazilas in the districts, sources said.

These schools are run without required number of teachers. Of them, 33 have no headmasters.

Out of 1713 approved posts in 320 government primary schools, 403 are lying vacant for long, sources said. Of the schools, 22 are run without headmaster.

Besides, many of the teachers are under-qualified and have no training.

Twenty-three teachers are holding the posts of headmasters with simply Secondary School Certificates (SSC).

There are 123 assistant teachers who passed SSC in third division while 69 teachers studied up to class eight.

A primary school inspector preferring anonymity said most of the teachers have managed their appointments offering bribes to the authorities concerned.

There is only one upazila primary education officer in Khagrachhari while eight of such posts are lying vacant to let the schools go without proper inspection or monitoring.

Many teachers take the opportunity to remain absent or engage "Barga Teachers" at Tk 500 per head to take classes on behalf of them, said the students and guardians.

Some of the schools are run only by two or three teachers who just sit idly and pass time through gossiping in the class instead of teaching, alleged Rahman, a guardian of Kalabagun area on the Khagrachhari town.

A primary school teacher at Matiranga upazila, on condition of anonymity, said they cannot take classes and engage "Barga teachers" as they are to remain busy in bribing or pleasing the officials concerned at Upazila Primary Education Office and Zila Primary Education Office.

One has to pay Tk 500 for joining the post of a teacher, Tk 300 for opening service book, Tk 400 for provident fund and Tk 1000 for PTI training, he alleged.

Besides, one has to spend Tk 400 to get recreation leave sanctioned, Tk 500 for inclusion of name in the time scale, Tk 25,000 for payment of pension after retirement and Tk 500 for loan from Provident Fund, he added.

District Primary Education Officer Indu Bhushan Dev, however, said he heard of such allegation of bribing but he never got any written complaint on which he could take measures to stop the evil practice.

"Lack of teachers and logistics stand in the way of providing quality education that we want to ensure," Indu said.

An inspector at Ramgarh upazila said some of the schools are situated in inaccessible and remote areas where they can hardly go for inspection or monitoring.

Many of the schools in Dighinala were seen to have a maximum of 35 pairs of long benches and the number of students enrolling in classes ranged from 300 to 400.

It forced the students to take classes in a terrible situation.

The headmaster of Rashik Nagor Government Primary School said they cannot make proper seating arrangement for the students as their repeated appeal for providing required furniture or other establishments fell on a deaf ear.