Varsity teachers' retirement age extension likely
The government is likely to extend the retirement age of public university teachers from existing 60 to 65 years.
"We have finalised the draft of a law to extend the retirement age and will be sending the bill to the cabinet soon for its approval," Education Secretary Dr Kamal Abdul Naser Chowdhury told The Daily Star, yesterday.
Out of 34 public universities in the country, currently, the retirement age of teachers at 30 public universities is 60 years.
However, teachers of Dhaka University, Chittagong University, Rajshahi University and Jahangirnagar University are serving till 65 years of age, said education ministry officials.
“We are formulating the law to ensure equity among the retirement age of the teachers of all public universities,” said a deputy secretary of the education ministry wishing not to be named.
The education ministry will send a summary of the draft to the cabinet this week and will later send it to the law ministry for vetting, he said.
According to University Grants Commission (UGC), there are around 11,000 teachers at public universities, said UGC sources.
The teachers have been demanding for an extension of their retirement age for a long time, as it felt unfair to them to retire five years earlier than teachers of the other four universities.
Besides, it would also help remedy the growing shortage of teachers in the public universities, they said.
The issue came into focus last year when delegations of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association (FBUTA) and the Association of Universities of Bangladesh met the prime minister at her office and placed their demand.
The prime minister then assured them that their demand would be met, following which the UGC prepared a proposal and sent it to the education ministry, said ministry officials.
Also, the teachers of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) in November last year boycotted class voicing their demands to extend retirement age.
The demonstration ended following assurance from the education minister.
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