Primary school teachers to be recruited through cluster tests

The government is planning to recruit assistant teachers in government primary schools across the country by holding recruitment tests in a cluster system to complete the appointment process quickly.

The Primary and Mass Education Ministry recently took the decision in principle to make the process of appointment of primary school teachers within a short time.

The ministry officials said the final decision will be taken by this month while a circular will be issued next month (March) seeking applications to hold the recruitment tests under the new cluster system.

Primary and Mass Education Ministry’s Secretary Farid Ahmed told The Business Post, “We took a decision to hold the primary teacher appointment test in a cluster system to reduce unusual delay in the recruitment process.”

Following the introduction of the cluster system, a massive change will come in the primary assistant teacher recruitment process, he added.

“Posts of teacher are becoming vacant due to retirement of teachers but it is taking a long time to fill these posts as the recruitment process is conducted simultaneously across the country.”

At least two recruitment tests will be conducted a year to appoint against vacant positions, he added.

Officials at the ministry and the Directorate of Primary Education (DPE) said under the new system, the recruitment examination will be held in four clusters instead of holding the tests simultaneously across the country.

The eight divisions—Dhaka, Chattogram, Rajshahi, Rangpur, Barishal, Khulna, Mymensingh, and Sylhet—will be divided into four clusters to hold recruitment tests.

Recruitment tests of eight divisions will be arranged separately through the four clusters and the results of the tests will also be published separately.

DPE sources said following the new procedure, the new circular may be published in the middle of next March for the recruitment of assistant teachers for two clusters. For the divisions for which the circular will be published, only the candidates of the respective divisions can apply.

There are various kinds of problems in holding the government primary school teacher recruitment exams simultaneously across the country. It becomes difficult to arrange the exam properly because some people try to adopt various dishonest methods.

During the last two recruitment exams, there were allegations of question leakage in several districts. In these incidents, law enforcement agencies also arrested some of the candidates for illegal activities.

DPE Director General Shah Rezwan Hayat said the DEP placed a proposal verbally to the ministry to bring a change in the previous process to reduce the lengthy recruitment process and the ministry took a decision in principle for holding the exams through a cluster system.

“Now, we are sending a written proposal in this regard and the ministry will take a final decision over the cluster recruitment tests by this month,” he added.

He also said after starting the recruitment process of primary school teachers, it is taking two to three year time to complete while the education of children is disrupted due to a shortage of teachers. So, there is a need to bring change in the method of appointment.

Earlier, on October 20, 2020, the DPE published a circular for recruitment against 32,577 vacant seats of assistant teachers where a total of 13, 09,461 candidates applied.

After more than two years, the appointment process ended with the appointment of 37,574 assistant teachers in January this year. Currently, over 7,000 posts of assistant teachers are vacant at over 65,000 government primary schools across the country.