Govt To Disburse MPO Salaries via EFT Starting Jan

Starting from January, the Ministry of Education has decided to disburse the government portion of salaries and allowances (MPO) for all private school and college teachers and staff via Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT).

To facilitate this, the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education has revised the deadlines for submitting MPO applications, including for higher grades, B.Ed. scales, and other financial benefits.

According to the new schedule, teachers, and staff of private schools and colleges can submit their MPO applications by the 6th of every even month, such as February, April, and June. Previously, the deadline was the 8th of even months. 

Additionally, MPO committees will meet between the 10th and 12th of every odd month, such as January, March, May, and July, to make decisions regarding the MPO applications submitted by teachers and staff.

Currently, government employees receive their salaries via EFT, while MPO teachers and staff have to wait for their payments through state-owned banks, which sometimes delays payments. In some cases, teachers have faced embarrassing situations, such as receiving Eid bonuses after the festival. This has led teachers to demand a system where they receive their salaries at the start of each month via EFT, similar to government employees.

In response, on October 5, during World Teachers' Day, the Ministry of Education announced that MPO salaries for private teachers would be disbursed via EFT.

Initially, the EFT process for 209 private MPO teachers and staff was started for the month of October. Preparations are also underway to collect information to extend this system to other teachers and staff.

Syed A. Z. Morshed Ali, Deputy Secretary of the Private Secondary Education Branch of the Ministry of Education, confirmed that the decision to implement EFT for MPO payments starting in January was made during a meeting on November 12. He said that the data of teachers would need to be included in the system for the process to be carried out.

Dr. Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud Sohel, Director of the Secondary Wing, added that the new timeline for MPO applications has been set to simplify the process of EFT salary disbursement.

According to the new schedule, MPO applications from teachers and staff should be submitted through the heads of institutions by the 6th of every even month. The applications will be verified and processed by the Upazila Education Officers by the 12th and District Education Officers by the 20th of the same month. The approved applications will then be sent to the regional directors and deputy directors, who will review them and forward them to the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education by the 8th of the odd month.

The MPO Committee will meet between the 10th and 12th of every odd month to approve the applications.

Previously, on November 14, the Directorate issued an order asking all teachers and staff to provide their national ID numbers, mobile phone numbers registered against the IDs, and the 13-17 digit numbers of the bank accounts where they receive their MPO payments.

In addition, after the EFT disbursement process is implemented for private schools and colleges, the Ministry of Madrasa Education has announced that they are also working on implementing the EFT process for madrasa teachers and staff.

The Directorate of Technical Education has already started accepting online MPO applications for teachers and staff in technical education institutions.

MPO teachers have praised the initiative to disburse salaries via EFT. Mohammad Habibullah Raju, the president of the Bangladesh Teachers Forum (BASHIF) and an assistant teacher at Khalilpur High School in Sujanagar, Pabna, expressed his hope that the system would be implemented quickly without any harassment or discrimination for teachers.