Non-govt teachers, employees struggle to get retirement benefits

Md. Sadidul Islam, former teacher of Bhabanipur Degree College of Parbatipur in Dinajpur, went to retirement in February last year. On 8 October, he came to Bangladesh Bureau of Educational Information and Statistics (BANBEIS) bhaban, where the office of Non-Government Teacher Employee Retirement Benefit Board is located.

Sadidul Islam could not get the retirement benefit in the last one and a half years.

While talking to this correspondent at the BANBEIS office, Sadidul Islam said he applied for retirement benefits in April last year but yet to get any money. Sadidul had suffered from a stroke and submitted the treatment documents. Yet, he does not get money.

"We have become pauper in managing the treatment costs,” said Sadidul’s wife who was accompanying him.

Not only Sadidul Islam, thousands of teachers of non-government schools, colleges and madrasas are waiting to get their retirement benefits. They are going through intolerable sufferings in want of money they deserve.

While the process of disbursing retirement benefits to the non-government teachers was always lengthy, the situation exacerbated further as the retirement benefit board is yet to be restructured after the political changeover. Most of the top officials of the board formed during the tenure of the previous government are not attending the office. With the passing of days, sufferings of these retired teachers are only mounting.

There are over 5,00,000 teachers and staff under MPO (Monthly Pay Order) across the country. Two government bodies take care of disbursement of retirement benefits for them. Non-Government Teachers and Employee Welfare Trust pays welfare benefits while Non-Government Employee Retirement Benefits Board disburses retirement benefits. 

As per rules, teachers and staff have to wait for up to four years even though they are supposed to get retirement and welfare benefits immediately after going into retirement.

According to the retirement benefits board, from September 2020 to 31 September this year, 37,000 non-government teachers and employees are waiting for retirement benefits. Among these, the audit of the applications submitted till December 2021 has been done. But money cannot be disbursed due to lack of funds. Retirement benefits have been disbursed against applications submitted upto August 2020 latest. On the other hand, according to Welfare Trust sources, there are about 31,000 applications pending for welfare benefits. Out of this, 10,242 applications have been submitted from January to June this year.

A large part of the money for retirement and welfare benefits is taken from the teachers and employees themselves. For this, 6 per cent of their basic salary is deducted monthly and 4 per cent of basic salary is deducted for welfare benefits. Apart from this, as per the recent decision,  Tk 100 per year (Tk 70 for retirement and Tk 30 for welfare) is being taken from each student. The rest of the money is collected from the government and interest on deposits. It can be mentioned that the government has not allocated any budget to this fund regularly. Assistance is sometimes given in the form of allocations.

According to the sources of retirement benefits board, about Tk 700 million are collected every month by deducting money at the rate of 6 per cent. FDR's dividend is Tk 30 million per month. But on an average, 1,000 applications for retirement benefits are submitted every month, which requires Tk 1.15 billion per month to settle. This means that there is a deficit of Tk 420 million every month and Tk 5.04 billion per year. Around Tk 45 billion is required to settle the 37,000 pending applications at present.

The money deducted from the teachers and employees for retirement benefits is deposited at a bank account opened in the name of the director general of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education. But now there is no regular director general after the change of government. Another official is performing routine duties. According to the related sources, the money accumulated cannot be used to provide retirement benefits due to the absence of a DG.

The amount of welfare benefits is relatively less than that of retirement benefits. At present, the secretary of the trust, Md Abul Bashar, is in charge of the routine duty of the trust officer. He told Prothom Alo that Tk 27 billion is needed to solve all the pending applications for teachers' welfare benefits. After that, it is possible to provide welfare benefits regularly if Tk 2 billion is given in the budget every year.

Asked, Bangladesh Principals' Association’s president Mohammad Mazharul Hanna told Prothom Alo that there are two problems here. One is the fund crisis and the other is the management crisis. Both the issues need to be addressed. The government has to allocate a certain amount of funds which will remain as capital. Interest from this principal amount and the money deducted from the teachers can solve the problem of funds.

The government should pay special attention so that teachers and employees can avail their deserved money in no time after their retirement.