THIS is worrying that there is no oversight on the recruitment of foreigners in English-medium schools. A report that 抖阴精品 published on August 9 says a majority of teachers in leadership roles in English-medium schools are Indians and the education ministry has no information on the matter. Renowned and relatively expensive private-sector English-medium schools, such as the Aga Khan Academy, Heritage School Bangladesh and Canadian International School, employ mostly foreigners in leadership roles. Secondary and Higher Education officials acknowledge the importance of having a monitoring system in place, but they currently have no consolidated information on聽 teachers鈥� recruitment in such schools. The lack of monitoring is partly because of a policy vacuum. In 2017, the government issued a rule under the Registration of Private Schools Ordinance 1962, but there are no rules regarding the nationality of teachers, employees and managing committee members. A higher rate of employment of foreigners signals a lack of local expertise. And, a huge amount of money is also drained out of the country.
Employment of foreigners is also prevalent in other sectors. In addition to government projects, textile and the apparel factories are the highest employers of foreigners in the private sector and a majority of them are Indians. A total of 16,303 applications from nationals of 101 countries were approved by the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority in 2022鈥�23. Besides, government agencies such as the Bangladesh Economic Zones Authority, the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority, the NGO Affairs Bureau and some ministries grant permits to foreigners to work on projects. It is mandatory for every foreigner to take permission from the state-owned investment promotion agency to serve any public and private company. A significant number of them are also reportedly illegal. In 2019, it was reported that the country has around 5 lakh foreigners in different ministries, projects and private companies, but only 100,000 were registered with the investment development authorities. The number of illegal foreign employees is reported to have doubled in 2024. The Centre for Development and Employment Research reports that more than $4 billion is remitted out of the country in salary and allowances of the skilled foreign work force.
There appears to be policy gaps that the government needs to address. In doing so, the government should review the rules under the private schools legislation to ensure that local expertise is not deprived in accommodating foreigners. The government needs to address the skills gaps in the local labour force so that the dependency on foreign expertise is reduced, which would eventually save a large amount of money from being remitted out.
