High Court suspends appointment process of 46,000 primary teachers

The High Court has suspended the recruitment of 46,000 teachers of primary schools in Dhaka and Chittagong divisions in the third phase for six months.

At the same time, the court ordered a probe into the question paper leak.

After hearing a writ petition, the High Court bench of Justice Mustafa Zaman Islam and Justice SM Masud Hossain Dolan passed the order on Tuesday.

Barrister Syed Syadul Haque Suman stood for the writ petitioner.

On the other hand, Deputy Attorney General Tushar Kanti Roy represented the state.

Suman said: "Questions were leaked in the third phase examination for the recruitment of assistant teachers of government primary schools. And many have given this leaked question. The results of the third phase of the examination have already been published. Due to this, questions have been raised about the published results. Therefore, some examinees from Dhaka and Chittagong filed a petition in the High Court seeking the investigation of question leak and suspension of the examination process.”

The High Court heard their plea and stayed the recruitment process for this phase for six months.

The Directorate of Primary Education published the notification of the clusters of Rangpur, Sylhet and Barisal divisions in the first phase on February 28 last year for the recruitment of assistant teachers.

Then on March 22, the circular of Rajshahi, Khulna and Mymensingh divisions was published in the second phase. Later on June 17, a circular was published for the recruitment of Dhaka and Chittagong divisions in the third phase.

Some 360,700 candidates applied in the first phase, 459,438 in the second phase and 340,000 candidates applied in the third phase.

On April 22, the revised results of the written examination of the third phase (21 districts of Dhaka and Chittagong Division except three hilly districts) for the appointment of assistant teachers in government primary schools were published.

For the viva voce, 46,199 candidates were selected.

The viva examination of the selected is going on. However, in the meantime, the High Court suspended this recruitment process.