Teachers Will No Longer Have to Visit Offices for Retirement Benefits: PM Tarique Rahman

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has promised to end the need for retired teachers to visit offices repeatedly to collect their retirement benefits, saying the government will try to ensure timely online payments directly to their bank accounts.

He made the statement on Saturday (August 15) at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in Dhaka. The occasion was a nationwide programme to distribute money from the Retirement Benefits Board and the Teachers and Employees Welfare Trust simultaneously across all 64 districts.

According to the prime minister, more than 100,000 retired teachers of private schools, colleges and madrasas were receiving, or would receive, part of their deposits in the two funds after a four-year gap. A total of 123,000 teachers are receiving the benefit, while more than 70,000 are expected to see some relief from financial uncertainty.

“Through today’s programme, more than one lakh retired teachers of private schools, colleges and madrasas have received, or are going to receive, inshaAllah, part of the money they had deposited in two government funds after 2022, that is, after a long four years,” Tarique Rahman said.

Teachers and employees contribute to the two funds every month. The government also deposits a specified amount against each account so that teachers can receive a substantial sum after retirement.

The prime minister acknowledged that collecting the money had been difficult for many retired teachers. “Extremely unfortunately, I have to say that while withdrawing this money, while collecting their own due money, they had to follow or were forced to follow an unwritten rule of paying bribes,” he said.

Tarique Rahman said the government had now managed to send the benefits to teachers’ bank accounts online without the earlier difficulties.

“If teachers, who teach millions of students about principles, morality and ideals, have to pay bribes to withdraw their money or go from office to office and suffer harassment, I believe it is not only harassment of teachers, but also an expression of our degradation as a nation,” he said.

He alleged that the two funds had also suffered from irregularities under the previous government. These included creating fake indexes, transferring money from the Teachers’ Welfare Fund to weak banks to facilitate embezzlement and damaging the funds’ technological infrastructure. The funds were left almost bankrupt as a result, he claimed. Retired teachers had received no money from them since 2022.

After taking office, the current government decided to pay the retirement benefits but found that the funds did not have enough money. The government therefore made special arrangements to pay more than 70,000 retired teachers, Tarique Rahman said.

He also paid tribute to former prime minister Khaleda Zia, saying the Teachers and Employees Welfare Trust was established in 1991 at her initiative. The Retirement Benefits Board was established in 2002, also under her initiative.

Tarique Rahman said Khaleda Zia initially allocated Tk 14 crore from the government fund and later built the trust’s fund to Tk 89 crore. He also praised her initiatives on education, including education stipends and free education opportunities for women. The prime minister said the government would work to prevent retired teachers from facing similar difficulties in the future.

“As long as your elected current government remains responsible for running the state, inshaAllah, our utmost effort will be to ensure that you no longer have to go from office to office to receive your retirement benefits,” he said. He added that the government would try to ensure that teachers receive their money online and on time, without harassment or the involvement of middlemen.

“Teaching is the only profession that creates all other professions,” Tarique Rahman said. Retirement, he added, does not end a teacher’s responsibility to society. He said teachers continue to play a widely accepted role in upholding Bangladesh’s religious, social and family values and would continue to serve as a “beacon of light” in society.