The partisan politics of MPO-enrolled teachers being banned

Even though they receive 100% of their salary and allowances from the government, MPO-enrolled teachers and employees are not bound by the same specific code of conduct as others when it comes to involvement in partisan politics.

As a result, they are freely engaging in 15 types of activities outside the realm of education. Notable among these are—leaning to party politics, brokering in land transactions, controlling market and auto-rickshaw associations, contracting, and participating in local government elections. To stop these activities, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has directed the formulation of a code of conduct. Following this, the Ministry of Education has started working on it. A draft on this matter will be finalized soon. These details were learned from sources at the Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Education.

In this regard, Abdul Khalek, Secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division of the Ministry of Education, told Agamir Somoy: "According to the Prime Minister's directive, a comprehensive code of conduct will be prepared for teachers. It will clearly state what a teacher can and cannot do. The code will give importance to preventing involvement in activities other than teaching. Among these, priority will be given to not engaging in politics."

Meanwhile, sources concerned indicate that there are currently about 5.5 lakh MPO-enrolled teachers and employees across the country. The new regulations will specify what teachers can and cannot do. Additionally, they will not be allowed to engage in party politics or activities outside teaching. At the same time, the opportunity to participate in local government elections while remaining in service will also be closed.

On July 28, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman visited the Ministry of Education. He held a meeting with the minister and senior officials there. During that meeting, it was reported to the Prime Minister that the primary responsibility of a teacher is to provide quality education. However, teachers are getting involved not only as active workers of various political parties but also in 15 types of non-educational activities. This is severely disrupting the overall discipline and normal environment of educational institutions. A proposal was made to formulate a new code of conduct for teachers to maintain their professionalism, along with taking strict measures to end their direct involvement in politics. Subsequently, on August 6, the Prime Minister's Office issued a directive to formulate the code of conduct.

It was also learned that during the meeting, the Prime Minister asked whether there was any separate code of conduct for private sector teachers. In response, officials said that the provisions of the MPO policy are mainly followed as the code of conduct for MPO-enrolled teachers. There, it is only instructed that teachers must refrain from any partisan political activities that disrupt the normal environment or violate discipline. Additionally, the policy mentions that creating instability in institutions by exerting political influence may be considered misconduct.

The officials also informed the Prime Minister that the "Government Servants (Conduct) Rules, 1979" do not directly apply to them. Due to the absence of a specific code of conduct, teachers are getting involved in various non-educational activities such as holding posts in party politics, engaging in politics full-time while skipping classes, arbitration, controlling auto-rickshaw associations, and participating in local representative elections. Although the government had long taken initiatives to formulate a separate code of conduct, it stumbled due to opposition from teacher leaders. Most recently, such an initiative was stalled before the 2018 national parliamentary elections.

Experts view the government's initiative as an attempt to restore a sound environment and discipline in the education arena. However, teacher organisations have the opposite opinion. Their comment is that this is a strategy to keep teachers away from the election field. Meanwhile, Jamaat-affiliated teacher leaders are directly saying that most of Jamaat's candidates in local elections are teachers. They have already lodged objections with the Election Commission against the proposal to make MPO-enrolled teachers ineligible for elections. The party's secretary, Professor Mia Golam Parwar, told Agamir Somoy: "UNESCO and the ILO have given teachers this opportunity. Taking it away is contrary to the constitutional equality and fundamental rights. Teachers have understood why the government wants to stop politics. If necessary, we will take legal action with the teachers."

While welcoming the government's initiative, teacher leader and Member Secretary of the MPO-enrolled Teachers' Nationalisation-Expectant Alliance, Principal Delawar Hossain Azizi, told Agamir Somoy: "The government may have different motives here. When irregularities and corruption have engulfed all levels, teachers are the people's source of trust. When a teacher becomes a people's representative, he is less involved in corruption. If the objective is to prevent these teachers from becoming people's representatives, then we have questions."

In this regard, EC Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed told Agamir Somoy: "The Election Commission has sent a proposal to the government for necessary amendments to the local government laws so that teachers cannot participate in local elections while remaining in service. There is no intention to prevent teachers from the opposition parties from participating."

Professor Dr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah of the Institute of Education and Research at the University of Dhaka and Vice-Chancellor of the National University told Agamir Somoy: "It is a general practice that a teacher is governed by his own rules and discipline. But it is because teachers have entered politics that the quality of education has drastically deteriorated. Therefore, everyone should be under a specific code of conduct. However, that policy should not in any way be control-oriented or curtail teachers' professional freedom."

Why they can participate in elections: The Representation of the People Order (RPO) imposes restrictions on persons holding lucrative posts from contesting parliamentary or local elections. However, MPO-enrolled teachers are not government employees; they are teachers of private educational institutions. Although the government pays a large portion of their salaries and allowances, in terms of appointment and service, they remain under the authority of the respective institution's managing committee. For this reason, the electoral restrictions applicable to government servants do not directly apply to MPO-enrolled teachers. As a result, many teachers are getting the opportunity to participate in various elections, including local government ones, while remaining in service.

The previous initiative had stalled: The initiative to prevent teachers from engaging in politics and participating in local elections is not new. Before the 2018 national elections, the Sheikh Hasina government had taken steps to prevent teachers from contesting elections. Following the then Prime Minister's directive, the Cabinet Division sent a letter to the Ministry of Education stating: "There are no specific regulations governing teachers' service. Many of them hold important positions in various political organisations and engage in politics full-time. As a result, they are not as interested in classroom teaching and managing educational institutions. This often makes it difficult to control these teachers' service at the field level. Government servants have ACRs (Annual Confidential Reports). Besides annual performance reports, they also have to submit progress reports every three months. Teachers (private) do not even have ACRs. As a result, there is no scope to evaluate many teachers' performance."

According to an Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Education, although the ministry and field administration receive complaints about various disorders involving teachers, teachers get away with the excuse that only the managing committee can take effective action against them. Since teachers are involved in politics, the committee also does not take action. Whichever party comes to power, that party's teacher leader places his preferred person on the managing committee of his own institution. As a result, most teachers sit in important positions of various political parties and spend their time in full-time political activities.