Over 4,000 independent Ebtedayee Madrasas in the country are being brought under a pay structure.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently approved a proposal by the Technical and Madrasa Education regarding the matter.
According to education ministry sources, on May 9, the then Technical and Madrasa Education Secretary Md Alamgir sent a summary of the statistics of madrasas and technical education to the PMO to bring them under the monthly pay order. The PM approved the summary on Jun 12.
“The proposal has been sent to the prime minister’s office and as soon as we receive the approval papers, they will be sent to the finance ministry,” said Technical and Madrasa Education Additional Secretary (administration and development) AKM Zakir Bhuiyan.
He added that once the finance ministry clears it, 1,519 institutes will be brought under the monthly pay order (MPO) and gradually the rest of the institutes will come under the same pay scheme.
On November 2018, the government implemented a guideline for the primary level independent Ebtedayee Madrasas.
Under the guideline an Ebtedayee teacher will get equal benefits as a primary school teacher and each madrasa will have four teachers including the principal. Among them one will be the madrasa head, two assistant teachers and one will be an Ebtedayee Qari teacher.
The head of the madrasa will be considered a grade 11 employee while the rest will be paid as grade 16 employees. Currently, the registered Ebtedayee madarsa principals get government grant of Tk 2,500 and the assistant teachers receive Tk 2,300.
The guideline also dictates that the Ebtedayee madrasa permissions have to be cleared by the Madrasa Education Board which will also be responsible for providing the academic recognition and teaching permits.
The madrasas can apply for a teaching permit two years after they have fulfilled the requirements. If they fail to get an academic recognition within four years of getting the teaching permit, it will be scrapped. The teachers can apply for salary allowance after an institution has received the academic recognition.
The government registered 18,189 independent Ebtedayee madrasa in 1984. From 1994, the madrasa teachers were given grant of Tk 500.
There are currently 4, 312 independent Ebtedayee Madrasas in the country. According to the proposal sent to the PMO the government will have to spend over three billion per year to provide the salary allowance.