The government has set out to create 12,607 permanent posts at the technical schools and colleges and polytechnic institutes in order to expand vocational education in Bangladesh.
These will include 1,061 cadre posts and 11,546 non-cadre ones, said Md Aminul Islam Khan, the technical and madrasa education secretary.
It needs the prime minister’s consent to create some posts while the education minister’s approval is required for some others after the nod of the Finance Division, public administration ministry and the Secretary Committee, according to Aminul.
“We hope we will be able to issue the order on creating the new posts next week,” he told bdnews24.com on Friday.
The public administration ministry forwarded the proposal from the Technical and Madrasah Education Division to the Finance Division last year.
The Secretary Committee on Administrative Development approved it on August 20 this year following the Finance Division’s nod.
The proposal to create the cadre posts was then sent to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has approved the proposal, said an official at her office.
The government will issue the order on the posts “shortly” on completion of the formalities, he added.
Omar Faruque, the additional technical and madrasa education secretary, said the creation of the posts is part of the government’s efforts to create skilled manpower by emphasising technical and vocational education.
Technical education has for too long been regarded as a poor cousin of academic study in Bangladesh.
The posts include 20 vice-principals (grade five on the National Pay Scale), 169 chief instructors (technical, grade six), 57 chief instructors (non-technical, grade six) 510 instructors (technical, grade nine), and 305 instructors (non-technical, grade nine).
The government will make the appointments in the posts in the fiscals 2019-20, 2020-21, and 2021-22.
“This initiative will play a positive role in domestic and foreign labour markets, and we hope our remittance inflow will increase further,” Faruque said.
A PMO official said the public administration ministry had proposed the creation of a total of 13,072 posts, but the Finance Division agreed on 12,607.