For teachers in the country’s public primary schools, the transfer process has a completely new structure. The government has created a four-tiered committee system to manage the allocation of newly appointed assistant teachers and the transfer of incumbent teachers, with the stated goal of making the entire process more orderly, transparent, and accountable.
The change was implemented through a circular issued by Section 2 of Primary Education at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training, signed by Undersecretary Rajib Kumar Sarker, and took effect immediately “in the public interest.” The following explains how the new system works, level by level.
The Four Committees, from Top to Bottom
National Committee. The highest body, chaired by the Secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education. The Director General of the Directorate of Primary Education is a member, with the Deputy Secretary (Schools) of the ministry serving as secretary. This committee resolves transfer requests at the national level.
Divisional Committee. This body manages transfers between districts within the same division (outside of municipal corporation areas). Once the committee approves a request, the Divisional Deputy Director of Primary Education issues the formal transfer order.
District Committee. With the District Primary Education Officer as secretary, this committee has one of the most important functions in the entire system: assigning new assistant teachers to public primary schools at the upazila level by lottery. This means that a new teacher’s first school is decided by a transparent lottery, not by anyone’s discretion.
Upazila or Thana Committee. The grassroots body, the one closest to the schools, processes and verifies transfer requests from its own area before they move on to the next stage.
Two Rules That Apply to Every Level
The circular sets common operating instructions for all four tiers.
First, each committee must meet at least once a month to review, verify, and resolve pending transfer requests. This is crucial for teachers: requests should no longer remain unresolved indefinitely, as a monthly deadline now applies to each level.
Second, there is a priority rule for “conditional replacement” transfers. Schools where a teacher previously received a “conditional replacement” transfer order must be given priority when assigning teachers, so that a school does not experience staff shortages simply because a replacement for the departing teacher was never appointed.
What This Means for Teachers
The practical implications are clear. New assistant teachers will receive their first assignment by lottery through the district committee, a system designed to eliminate lobbying influence. Current teachers applying for transfers must now follow a defined process: upazila, district, division, or national, depending on the level they wish to move to. And since each committee is required to meet monthly, teachers can expect regular decisions, rather than having to wait for an opaque process.
Transfers and assignments have long been one of the most contentious aspects of primary school administration, with allegations of wrongdoing surfacing year after year. Whether a four-tiered structure will solve this problem will depend on how the committees function in practice; but at least the framework now exists in writing with clear responsibilities and timelines.
Rising Barta will be closely monitoring the performance of the new system once transfer applications begin to be processed. Stay tuned.
