The Appellate Division has ruled that around 30,000 head teachers of government primary schools across the country will be recognized as second-class gazetted officers in the 10th grade of the national pay scale.
A bench led by Justice Md Ashfaqul Islam passed the order on Thursday.
Senior lawyer Barrister Salauddin Dolan represented the teachers in court.
On February 26, 2019, the High Court had directed that government primary school head teachers be given gazetted status along with a 10th-grade salary, effective from March 9, 2014.
The ruling, delivered by the bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Khizir Ahmed Chowdhury, validated the directive.
Following the verdict, Barrister Salauddin Dolan had told reporters that although head teachers were designated as second-class officials, they were placed in the 11th and 12th salary grades, unlike other second-class officials in different ministries or departments, who received salaries in the 10th grade.
In 2014, the government had announced the promotion of primary school head teachers to second-class status.
However, a notification issued the same day by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education later set their salaries at the 11th grade for trained teachers and the 12th grade for untrained teachers.
The Bangladesh Government Primary School Head Teachers Association and other organizations had long protested the decision.
On March 4 last year, 45 aggrieved teachers, including the association’s president, filed a writ petition in the High Court challenging the decision to place them in the 11th and 12th grades.
