The education ministry has decided to disburse the government portion of monthly pay order, or MPO, payments for teachers and staff of private schools and colleges through the Electronic Fund Transfer, or EFT, system from January.

The Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, or DSHE, has revised the deadlines for MPO registration and applications for financial benefits, including higher grades and Bachelor of Education, or BEd, scale payments in preparation for the transition.

According to the new schedule, teachers and staff of private schools and colleges will be able to apply for MPO registration and related benefits by the sixth of every even month, such as February, April, and June.

Previously, applications were accepted until the eighth of these months.

In odd months, such as January, March, and May, MPO committees will review the applications and finalise decisions between the 10th and 12th.

While government employees already receive salaries and allowances via EFT, MPO-listed teachers and staff still rely on state-owned banks to process their payments manually.

This analogue system involves several stages of approval, often causing delays. In many cases, teachers receive salaries and allowances for a previous month only after the 10th of the following month.

Such delays have led to embarrassing situations, including instances where teachers received festival bonuses for one Eid during another Eid.

As a result, MPO-listed teachers, who constitute a majority of the education system, have long demanded salary disbursements via EFT at the beginning of each month, similar to government employees.

On Oct 5, World Teachers' Day, the education ministry announced its decision to introduce EFT for MPO payments.

In October, the salaries and allowances of 209 MPO-listed teachers and staff from private schools and colleges were initially disbursed through EFT.

The DSHE has begun collecting information to extend the system to all MPO-listed teachers and staff.

Syed AZ Morshed Ali, deputy secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division, told bdnews24.com: “A meeting at the ministry on Nov 12 decided to implement EFT payments for private school and college teachers from January. That’s our target. To achieve this, teachers' information must be incorporated into the system, which is a technical process.

“The DSHE is preparing to collect data on all teachers and staff for inclusion in the EFT system. Once the data is incorporated into the iBAS++ process, we aim to start EFT payments from January,” he said.

Prof Khan Moinuddin Al Mahmud Sohel, DSHE director for the secondary education wing, told bdnews24.com that the revised MPO application deadline aims to simplify the EFT payment process for teachers and staff.

Under the new schedule, applications for MPO registration must be submitted by the 6th of each even month through the institution’s head.

Upazila education officers will verify and resolve the applications by the 12th of the month, while district education officers will do so by the 20th.

These will then be sent to the regional directors and deputy directors.

In odd months, the regional authorities will verify and approve the applications by the 6th, after which they will be sent to the DSHE for final approval.

The relevant branch of the directorate will cross-check the applications before forwarding them to the Education Management Information System, or EMIS, by the 8th of each odd month.

The MPO committee will then meet between the 10th and 12th of each odd month to decide on the MPO inclusion for applicants.

On Nov 14, the directorate issued a notification requiring all teachers and staff to provide their national ID number, registered mobile phone number, and the 13 to 17-digit bank account number where they receive MPO payments.

Following the implementation of EFT for private school and college teachers, the process is also being initiated for madrasa staff.

Md Abul Bashar, deputy director of the finance branch at the madrasah education directorate, told bdnews24.com that this process is underway.

The Directorate of Technical Education, which has long relied on an analogue system, has already started transitioning technical institution staff’s MPO applications to an online server.

MPO-listed teachers have welcomed the initiative to transfer payments via EFT.

Habibullah Raju, president of Bangladesh Teachers Forum, and an assistant teacher at Khalilpur High School in Pabna’s Sujanagar, told bdnews24.com: “Teachers are eager to see this implemented quickly, and we hope no teacher faces harassment or exclusion in this process.”