The Crime Desk: Many of the members of the syndicate formed in the past due to irregularities, corruption, and bribery in the country’s education sector are still active in Vol Palt. Ministry of Education, Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, Department of Technical and Madrasa Education, Directorate of Primary Education, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, Directorate of Inspection and Audit, Directorate of Education Engineering, and 13 institutions belonging to these organizations have more than two hundred officers and employees under 20 syndicates to ensure bribery. .
The investigation revealed that there is influence of bribery in various departments of the police station education office, regional education office, education building, and even the ministry. Admission of students to schools, recruitment of teachers, transfers, postings, MPO membership of teachers, approval of educational institutions, nationalization, etc. Retired teachers have to pay bribes to collect pension money. Besides, there is unlimited extortion at every stage of construction, repair, purchase, and supply of furniture and educational equipment. Indiscriminate waste of government money and looting is going on in the education and engineering department.
The investigation revealed that in the last 15 and a half years, 92 officials have served in the education administration. They have committed hundreds of crores of crores of corruption under the umbrella of three former ministers. The followers of a former Director General of the Department of Education, who built a fortress of corruption with the help of a former minister’s husband and brother, are still in the education administration. Some of those who were beneficiaries of Awami until now are turning into beneficiaries of the new government. An official of the Ministry of Education said that when the government comes to power, these beneficiaries become corrupt. The beneficiaries of the Awami government are still in good standing in various universities and colleges of the country, including the Ministry of Education, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, all education boards, Directorate of Education Engineering, and National Education Management Academy (NAEM). In some of these, the head of the department has resigned, but those who have been given the current responsibility are also of the same ideology and close to the former ministers.
In the last 15 years, more than half of the education sector allocation has been spent on infrastructure development. As a result, irregularities and corruption have also increased in the Directorate of Education and Engineering. Nothing happens except bribery in the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education. In big cities, including the capital, huge sums of money have to be paid to get permission for English-medium schools or kindergartens. In the case of high schools and colleges, the minimum amount of this bribe is 2 lakh rupees. If the grant or salary is stopped as a punitive measure against the institution or a particular teacher for any reason, a bribe of 30 to 40 thousand taka has to be paid to resume it. 15,000 to 20,000 taka bribe is required for the process of pension documents.
If you want to take the initiative of nationalizing the educational institution, you have to pay a bribe in more or less 20 steps. Bribing up to 50 thousand rupees for the organization to get a ‘positive inspection report’ has become an open secret. A teacher or employee has to pay a minimum bribe of 20 thousand to 1.5 lakh taka for joining MPO. This bribe trade has taken a more serious form after the MPO recruitment was left to the field administration in September 2015. As a result, the level of harassment of teachers has also increased several times. Apart from this, one has to pay a bribe of 8–10 thousand taka to send the file from the upazila education office to get the name, age, time scale, and selection grade corrected. The district education office has to pay 5-7 thousand taka.
