Primary school head teachers get 2nd class status as govt officials

The Supreme Court’s Appellate Division has ruled that head teachers of government primary schools will be given the status of second-class gazetted officers in the 10th grade.

A four-judge appellate bench headed by Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed made the ruling on Thursday after disposing of a review petition by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education.

Advocate Salahuddin Dolon represented the teachers at the hearing.

Later Dolon said: “All second-class professionals get salary of 10th grade apart from primary school head teachers. Although they’re second class in designation, they receive salaries of 11th [trained] and 12th [untrained] grade.”

“Non-cadre second-class employees working in other ministries or departments receive 10th grade salary under the national pay scheme.”

“They [head teachers] had three petitions - second-class status, 10th grade and provision of timescale and selection grades. But the ministry said it only had objections regarding timescale,” he said.

“Because there’s been no provision for timescale since 2015. This will be granted once it’s resumed again. Following that, we made the appeal today. They’ll receive second-class status and 10th grade salary from now.”

On Mar 9, 2014, the government upgraded the status of government primary school head teachers to second-class.

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education issued a notification on the same day but later set 11th grade for trained and 12th grade for non-trained head teachers.

Bangladesh Government Primary School Head Teachers’ Association and other such organisations have been protesting against the decision.

On Mar 3, 2024, Riaz Parvez, the association’s president, and 44 other teachers filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the decision to set 11th and 12th grade for head teachers.

On Feb 26, 2019, a High Court bench comprising Justice Naima Haider and Justice Khizir Ahmed Choudhury issued an order granting 10th grade salary for head teachers. The order directed the government to pay both trained and untrained head teachers from Mar 9, 2014.

After the final hearing of the government's appeal, the full bench of the Appellate Division, headed by the then chief justice, dismissed the appeal and delivered its verdict on Jan 6, 2022.

The head teachers then filed a contempt of court case as the verdict was not implemented in three months after it was delivered.

In June that year, the High Court show-caused the defendants on why disciplinary action won’t be taken for not putting the verdict in effect.