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MPO spending tops Tk 15,000cr

2,762 more educational institutions become eligible for monthly pay order; fresh list soon

Reiaul Karim Byron and Wasim Bin Habib
With around 3,000 more educational institutions coming under the monthly pay order scheme anytime soon, the government has proposed to allocate Tk 15,001 crore this fiscal year for salaries of all the teachers and staff on the MPO list
Of the allocation, Tk 1,147 crore has been earmarked for newer institutions, many of which have been waiting in queues for decades to get salaries of their teachers and staff, said officials of the finance and education ministries.
The allocation was Tk 13,144 crore in the last fiscal year.
According to the education ministry list, some 2,762 out of 9,614 private secondary schools, colleges, technical institutions and madrasas have become eligible to get the MPO benefits.
More than halfor 1,629 of the institutions are schools and colleges while the number of technical and vocational institutions are 582. A total of 551 madrasas have met the criteria to be under the MPO scheme.
Sources in the finance ministry said
schools and colleges will get Tk 865 crore, and Tk 282 crore will go to vocational institutions and madrasas.
The last time the government went for fresh inclusion of institutions in the MPO list was in 2010.
This time, the government is putting special emphasis on technical and vocational institutions as it wants to expand technical and vocational education, deemed crucial for creating skilled manpower and national development.
The ministry is mulling an increase in the number to around 3,000 institutions as it wants to accommodate those from the areas lagging behind like haors, chars and hills. For that, the criteria would be relaxed, they added.
Besides, there is a huge pressure from the ruling party lawmakers and influential leaders to incorporate institutions of their choice in the MPO list.
"We have almost completed the process. The announcement of fresh listing for MPO may come within a week or two," said an official of the education ministry, wishing not to be named.
In many upazilas, there are 10 to 12 good institutions which are eligible to get the MPO. But there are some areas like hills and haors where getting one to two eligible institutions is tough, he said.
"So, we want to provide MPO benefit in a way that every upazila is covered."
The MPO is the government's share in the payroll of non-government educational institutions. Under the scheme, non-government teachers get their basic pay as well as some monthly allowances from the public fund.
As per the rules, an educational institution first comes under the MPO scheme and then the
government includes the teachers of the institution in the payroll.
Currently, more than 4.50 lakh teachers and employees of 26,340 secondary schools, colleges, madrasas and technical institutions enjoy the benefits.
The BNP government had suspended the scheme in its 2001-06 tenure.
In 2010, the AL government reinstated it, bringing 1,624 more institutions under the scheme. But since then, no other institutions got the benefits.
The next year, the government spent Tk 4,992 crore for the MPO. The allocation for MPO increased to Tk 13,144 crore in the outgoing fiscal year.
Several thousand teachers and employees of government-recognised educational institutions have been demanding MPO for long. They held demonstrations and observed hunger strikes in the capital to press home their demand.
There are 5,242 non-MPO educational institutions where around 80,000 teachers are working without any pay, some for more than a decade, according to Non-MPO Shikhya Pratishthan Shikhyak Karmachari Federation.
Many of them earn their living by private tuition or other part-time jobs.
Following days-long
demonstrations by teachers, the government initiated the process of listing new institutions in June last year.
The education ministry announced "Manpower Structure and MPO Policy-2018" on June 12, setting four new criteria for getting MPO — academic approval of the institution, number of students, number of examinees and the pass rate.
In August last year, the education ministry sought online applications from educational institutions, and 9,614 applied. Of those, 5,042 are secondary schools, 1,099 colleges, 1,867 madrasas and 1,606 technical institutes.
As the ministry started scrutinising the applications for finalising the list of educational institutions eligible to get the benefit, came December 30 election, halting the process.
After the polls, the ministry started the process and found 2,762 meeting the four criteria. Then it wrote to the finance ministry for funds, and the allocation was proposed.