Education cadre lecturers give memorandum to prime minister seeking end to promotion deadlock
Lecturer-level teacher-officers of the 38th BCS (General Education) cadre have given a memorandum to the prime minister demanding an end to the long-running promotion deadlock and the removal of professional discrimination.
The memorandum demands that promotion be ensured for all officers eligible to move from lecturer to assistant professor. It also seeks government intervention to end the professional stagnation caused by promotion delays and a shortage of posts.
The memorandum says officers of the BCS (General Education) cadre, established in 1980, play an important role in improving the quality of secondary, higher secondary and higher education in the country. But their professional progress has been obstructed for a long time by promotion complications and by the failure to create the necessary posts.
It also says promotion delays are greater for education cadre officers than for other cadres. That, the memorandum says, is creating professional discrimination among officers and stagnation in their careers.
The memorandum puts forward several proposals to solve the problem. They include considering the promotion of officers of the 36th, 37th and 38th BCS batches on a priority basis, holding Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings regularly, creating the necessary posts in the education cadre, and creating supernumerary posts for promotion-eligible officers.
The teacher-officers noted in the memorandum that ensuring teachers' professional development and dignity is one of the preconditions for delivering quality education. They therefore believe intervention from the highest level of government is needed to resolve the promotion deadlock quickly.
After submitting the memorandum at the Prime Minister's Office, the teacher-officers met the director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education. They set out the rationale for their demands at the meeting.
The directorate's Director (Training) Professor Md Anwar Hossain, Deputy Director (Government College-1) Professor Md Nurul Haq Sikder, and members of the 38th BCS (General Education) cadre were present at the meeting.
Professor Dr Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud Sohel, director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education and convener of the BCS (General Education) Cadre Association, listened to their statements and demands. He assured them the demands would be raised with the higher authorities and that necessary steps would be taken to implement them.
