Last August, approximately 700,000 people applied for 1,122 positions as headteachers in public primary schools. Twelve months later, the exam date has still not been set.
This equates to 624 candidates for each position. The exam will be held entirely in Dhaka.
How the posts shrank
The Civil Service Commission published the circular on August 31, 2025, announcing 2,169 school principal positions.
Subsequently, the hiring rules were amended so that 80% of the vacancies would be filled through promotion rather than direct hiring. This reduced the number of directly hired positions to 1,122, roughly half of what candidates had initially applied for.
Why nothing has moved
The PSC had begun preliminary preparations when a High Court order suspended the process. This legal hurdle was recently overcome by the courts.
Subsequently, the commission lost its chairman. Mobasher Monem abruptly resigned on August 18, leaving a constitutional position vacant. Sources within the commission say that, since then, the PSC has been carrying out mostly routine work, with little room to make political decisions in the absence of a chairman; and setting a date for an exam of this magnitude is a political decision.
A new chairman was appointed on Wednesday: Professor Mohammad Nazmuzzaman Bhuiyan, from the Department of Law at Dhaka University. The final decision now rests with him.
Shahina Ferdousi, Director General of the Directorate of Primary Education, told Prothom Alo that her directorate has already sent the PSC the necessary information and data, and that the PSC will set the date and schedule as it sees fit.
More than half of schools have no permanent head
This figure highlights the magnitude of the backlog.
Of the 65,457 principal positions approved nationwide, 34,159 remain vacant. In these schools, senior assistant teachers are working on a temporary basis in addition to teaching their regular classes.
Therefore, more than half of Bangladesh’s public primary schools are being managed by temporary staff. The recruitment process, which has been stalled for a year, would fill 1,122 of these 34,159 positions.
The promotion route is stuck as well
The other 80 percent should come from promotions from the assistant teacher position. That avenue was blocked by litigation for 13 years.
In June, the Appeals Division ruled in their favor. However, the written copy of the ruling has not yet reached the Directorate of Primary Education, and without it, no administrative procedures can begin.
Thirteen years of legal obstruction ended three months ago. What is delaying the process now is a document that has yet to arrive.
What candidates should know
- The examination is 90 marks written and 10 marks oral, with a minimum of 50 percent required to pass the written paper
- All of it is to be held in Dhaka. Candidates outside the capital should expect travel and accommodation costs on a date that could come at short notice
- PSC sources describe staging an examination this large in Dhaka as a serious administrative and financial challenge, which is itself a reason the date has not been fixed
- No schedule exists yet. Treat any date circulating online as unverified until PSC publishes one
Behind all this lies a stark mathematical reality. Even if all 1,122 positions were filled tomorrow and every promotion approved, the shortage wouldn’t be solved quickly, and 623 out of every 624 applicants wouldn’t be hired. The waiting is what’s visible; the competition is what no one mentions.
Rising Barta will report the primary head teacher recruitment examination date when the Public Service Commission announces it.
