Several hundred teachers and employees of different nationalised colleges across the country are receiving much-lower-than-expected retirement benefits due to the 2018 rules.
College teachers and employees said that the Nationalised College Teacher-Employee Integration Rules, 2018 would take into consideration half of their continued service period at a college before its nationalisation in determining their pension and leave.
They alleged that they would be deprived of right retirement benefits due to the rules.
They urged the government to amend the rules immediately and count their service period from the date of their first employment under the monthly payment order scheme for determining their pension.
If the rules are not amended, they would receive negligible, partial, or zero pension at the end of their service lives, they added.
Under the banner of the Nationalised College Teacher-Employee Forum, about 1,000 teachers and employees are now waiting for the government intervention in this connection.
The forum central committee president, Md Nazim Uddin, also a retired principal of Govt Shahid Smriti Adarsha College at Nandail in Mymensingh, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· recently that as per Section 14(1) of the 2018 rules, the teachers or employees who worked previously at another or more than one colleges other than the nationalised one would not get any retirement benefits for the period they worked at those educational institutions.
On the contrary, the Secondary and Higher Secondary School Teacher-Employee Integration Rules, 2024, stipulates that the effective service period means 50 per cent of the total uninterrupted service period of teachers and employees immediately prior to the date of nationalisation of schools, he said.
Nazim said that as per the 2024 rules, the teachers and employees of the nationalised secondary and higher secondary schools would get ‘favourable’ retirement benefits.
‘There is a clear discrimination between the rules for the schools and colleges regarding the effective service period,’ he said, urging the government to amend the 2018 rules.
The forum leaders also said that since 2020 they submitted 46 letters to senior education ministry officials regarding their demand. They had submitted the first letter to then deputy education minister on October 8, 2020.
Under the interim government, which assumed power in August past year after the ouster of the Awami League regime in a mass uprising, they submitted five letters to the office of the education adviser. The last one submitted on May 21.
Nazim said that no government paid heed to their demand.
Across the country, there are at least 104 principals, 94 vice-principals, 112 assistant professors, 387 lecturers and other officials, including librarians, assistant librarians, demonstrators and clerks at 335 nationalised colleges, who are receiving much-lower-than-expected retirement benefits, he mentioned.
Of them, about 300 have already gone into retirement.
According to Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education’s assistant director (college – 1) Md Nurul Haque Sikder, the education ministry takes steps in cases of amending any rule.
He said that some meetings were held between the teachers and the ministry in this regard.
Education ministry adviser professor Chowdhury Rafiqul Abrar and secretary Rehana Parveen could not be reached over phone despite repeated attempts.
