No plan to raise age-limit in govt jobs: State minister in Jatiya Sangsad

The government has no plan at this moment to raise the age-limit for recruitment to government jobs, state minister for public administration Farhad Hossain informed the Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) on Tuesday.

The state minister also said except the BCS, the ministries and departments that could not publish job circulars due of the Covid-19 situation were requested to fix the age ceiling applicable till 25 March 2020 in the circulars, which will be published until 31 December this year.

In response to a question by Bangladesh Nationalist Party MP Mosharraf Hossain during the question and answer session in parliament, Farhad Hossain said currently there is almost no session jam in the educational institutions including the universities like before. Consequently, students could acquire their results of SSC, HSC and graduation at 16, 18 and 23-24 years of age respectively. The age-limit for government jobs is 30. That’s why a job seeker could get six to seven years of time for job applications. Besides, the appointment procedures also take time but that’s not counted.

Farhad Hossain further said the number of vacant posts has decreased as the age-limit for retirement has been increased to 59 from 57. In this context, the number of job seekers will increase considerably if we raise the age limit for job applications. This could lead to over-competition and consequently create disappointment among the job seekers below 30. That’s why the government has no plan to raise the age ceiling.

Responding to a question of ruling party MP Ali Azam, the state minister said PSC (Public Service Commission) has proposed the appointment of 35,603 cadres through 28th to 39th BCS exams since 2010.

During that time, PSC proposed the appointment of 5,143 applicants in non-cadre first class jobs and 5,743 in second class jobs.

Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury presided over the question and answer session.