Despite being in his mid-50s, Abdul Wahed Mian, the head teacher of a government primary school, walks past all classrooms in his school every day to see how the teachers are taking classes.
But he does not find the encouragement among teachers that he used to observe in the past. To him it seems that a large number of today’s teachers are depressed and not interested in teaching.
“When I came to the teaching profession, it was an aim for many of us. But many of today’s teachers consider it as a transitional job. That makes the difference,” Wahed, who has been teaching for the last 41 years, told the Dhaka Tribune at Senpara Parbata Government Primary School.
In his years as a head teacher of different government primary schools across the country, he found many talented teachers who continued teaching for 6-12 months before switching to a better job.
“Some of them call me often and say they think the decision to quit the profession was right and now they are leading much better life than they had as a primary school teacher,” he said.
“This is in fact true. Many of the teachers at my school tell me that their friends who are employed in the garments sector are earning much better than a school teacher.”
Wahed finds it as the main problem in primary education.
“Billions of taka is spent for infrastructure and other development works but if qualified people do not come in teaching profession, how will you improve the quality of education?”
The low pay is not just a problem for primary teachers, at high schools, colleges or at public universities, they work for meagre payments.
At present, an assistant teacher of a government primary school earns Tk8,000 monthly in total at the entry level while a headmaster gets Tk8,300-Tk8,500 depending their level of training.
A driver in government service gets Tk8,000-8,500 as monthly salary while he also earns a good amount by doing overtime. They can earn Tk12,000-13,000 monthly at the entry level.
The World Teachers’ Day will be observed in the country and elsewhere in the world today. This year's theme is “A Call for Teachers.” Different organisations and NGOs will arrange programmes on the occasion.
Campaign for Popular Education Executive Director Rasheda K Choudhury said teacher’s pay in Bangladesh for all levels was lower than any other South Asian country.
She said this was leading to low quality teaching as qualified people often would not choose the profession.
Many choose the profession for a short time as a transitional option and change it when they get a better option.
According to Directorate of Primary Education and Directorate of Higher and Secondary Education, a good number of posts in schools always remain vacant as the young teachers leave frequently.
This has a severe impact on the quality of education. It is said that these days, people who are choosing teaching are not qualified or not interested in teaching.
According to Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics, only 4% of the teachers who teach mathematics in the secondary schools have completed their honours degree in mathematics while about 11% of the secondary teachers have passed only high school and did not study mathematics.
The condition is same in other subjects.
The Awami League in its election manifesto pledged that they would create a separate pay commission for teachers. But in its nearly five years’ tenure, the government has failed to do so.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, however, said the government had increased teachers’ salaries and was working hard to improve their conditions.