Education minister assures teachers of consideration for promotions, training and preferred postings

Education and Primary and Mass Education Minister Dr ANM Ehsanul Haque Milon has assured newly appointed teachers that their concerns over promotions, higher education and training opportunities, recruitment delays, coordination of spouses’ workplaces and preferred postings will be considered.

He also urged newly appointed teachers to set career goals from the outset, equip students with practical skills and help transform government colleges into institutions that ensure quality education for all.

Milon made the remarks on Tuesday (October 13) as the chief guest at the inauguration of an orientation training course for officers appointed to the 49th Bangladesh Civil Service (BCS) General Education cadre in Bogura.

Addressing the newly appointed teachers, the minister said they should decide early in their careers what they wanted to achieve, where they wanted to go and what kind of legacy they hoped to leave through their work. A teacher’s responsibility extends beyond classroom instruction to preparing students for the Bangladesh of the future, he said.

During the programme, one of the newly appointed teachers raised concerns about the difficulties faced by married couples working in government service when they are posted far apart. The teacher said managing family responsibilities alongside professional duties becomes difficult when spouses work in distant locations. Travelling between workplaces during the two-day weekly weekend also creates mental stress, the teacher added.

The teacher called for arrangements to keep spouses’ workplaces close to each other and proposed introducing a choice list that would allow teachers to indicate their preferred posting locations.

In response, Milon said the government understood the need to coordinate the workplaces of married couples and would try to resolve such problems while taking teachers’ personal and family lives into account.

He said posting decisions had to consider the positions of teachers already serving, existing policies and shortages of teachers at different institutions. Although it might not always be possible to accommodate everyone’s preferences, the concerns raised by teachers would be taken seriously, he added.

The minister also spoke about his approach to new ideas and his experiences working with political leaders across generations.

“I always think about doing something new. I learned to think in new ways from Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman and from the Mother of the Nation, Begum Khaleda Zia. I am now working with Prime Minister Tarique Rahman with the same approach,” he said.

Milon said he had written articles while in the opposition and recalled publishing one in 2015 titled “Tarique Rahman Genetically Smart”. He said the article reflected his observations of Tarique Rahman during the period when Milon served as state minister for education and had the opportunity to work with him. Tarique Rahman was not the prime minister at the time, he noted.

Recalling Ziaur Rahman’s vision, Milon said the former president had spoken about Bangladesh’s vast untapped resources, including the potential of maritime resources beyond the country’s borders and the fertile alluvial soil carried downstream from the Himalayas.

“Ziaur Rahman said we had enormous resources that we could not yet utilise. A day would come when the vast resources of the sea beyond Bangladesh’s borders would open up new possibilities for us. The alluvial soil flowing down from the Himalayas is giving us strength. This is how the potential for another Bangladesh is emerging, and we can see it. We witnessed his foresight and vision even then,” he said.

Milon said he had subsequently had the opportunity to work during Khaleda Zia’s tenure and had seen how much importance she attached to education and teachers.

He added that he had worked with Tarique Rahman on improving the education system between 2001 and 2006. The ideas and experiences accumulated across the two generations had helped shape an approach to education that Tarique Rahman continued to pursue, he said.

Welcoming the newly appointed teachers to the profession, Milon said he believed they would make a lasting contribution to education across the country.

“You are fortunate to be joining the teaching profession today. I welcome you once again. You have filled this auditorium with the fragrance of tuberose flowers that you are holding. I believe that in the coming days, you will spread that fragrance throughout Bangladesh in the same way,” he said.