The government will recruit, within a year, 26,000 teachers who have been empanelled as teachers of registered primary schools, announced primary and mass education minister Mostafizur Rahman yesterday.
While discussing the proposed budget in Parliament, the minister said, “We’ve appointed 22,000 teachers over the last two years. We will recruit around 26,000 teachers in accordance with the directives of the court. The recruitment process will be completed within a year.”
Over the last few days, the teachers listed in the panel have organised various protest programmes, demanding their recruitment at a time. The teachers, under the Bangladesh Primary Panel Teachers’ Oikya Parishad, organised human chains and sit-in protests demanding their recruitment. They met the primary and mass education minister to press home their demands.  
On April 21, 2010, the government had issued a circular for the recruitment of assistant primary teachers under the Service Policy, 2009, for the teachers of registered non-government primary schools. The government later published a merit list of 42,611 teachers on April 8, 2012, after an examination was held to appoint them in phases.
On 9 January, 2013, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina nationalised 22,955 registered non-government primary schools. The teachers listed in the panel were supposed to have been recruited in those schools. When most of the registered primary schools were nationalised after the Prime Minister’s announcement, the recruitment process was suspended. The teachers then organised protest movements. When the teachers did not get any remedy following their agitation, they went to court.
The court later directed the government to recruit the empanelled teachers. The government appealed to the higher court, but the court rejected the petition, and, as a result, the process of appointment of the teachers was initiated.
On June 6 this year, the Directorate of Primary Education directed the district education officers to appoint the empanelled teachers to the nationalised primary schools after the High Court’s order.