The process of forming governing bodies and managing committees for private educational institutions across Bangladesh has been suspended.
The announcement was made on Thursday in an urgent notice signed by Prof Syed Akhtaruzzaman, Dhaka education board chairman and president of the Inter-Education Board Coordination Committee.
"As the regulations have not been finalised, the formation of governing bodies and managing committees for private educational institutions is requested to remain suspended until further notice," the notification read.
Private educational institutions in Bangladesh are administered through governing bodies or managing committees -- with college-level boards termed governing bodies and secondary school-level boards referred to as managing committees.
These bodies are constituted under the authority of education boards.
Regulations governing these private school and college boards were previously amended on Aug 31 last year under the interim government.
Those amendments made it mandatory for candidates seeking the chairmanship of a private college governing body to hold at least a four-year Bachelor’s degree or a Master’s degree, while a minimum of a Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent was required for school managing committee chairs.
Under earlier regulations, institution heads, in consultation with local MPs, were required to submit three names to the education board chosen from local public representatives, retired first-class civil servants, education patrons, or social workers.
The amended rules, however, required institution heads to consult divisional commissioners or district commissioners instead.
The pool of eligible candidates for board chairs was restricted to government officials not below Grade 9, retired government officers not below Grade 5, public university or government college professors and associate professors, institution founders, and officers (or retired officers) holding four-year professional degrees in medicine, engineering, or agriculture at equivalent grade levels.
This effectively barred public representatives and MPs from assuming chairmanship roles in non-government educational institutions.
The BNP formed the government after winning the 13th parliamentary election in February this year. Subsequently, some newly elected MPs objected to the eligibility requirements for the chairmanship and called for the regulations to be revised once more.
They advocated for reverting to the previous system to allow public representatives to serve as board chairs.
Against this backdrop, Education Minister ANM Ehsanul Hoque Milon said in March that governing boards were being re-established with a minimum qualification requirement of a Bachelor’s degree for board chairs.
"We have re-established the management committees," he said during a media briefing at the Secretariat on Mar 16. "Our baseline for each of them is a Bachelor’s degree, what we call the graduation level.”
However, the minister did not clarify at the time whether public representatives would once again be permitted to hold these positions.
Veteran educators expressed strong concerns over the prospect of restoring the old rules, warning that allowing public representatives back onto governing boards would reintroduce "partisan political influence" into the education sector.
Prof Mazharul Hannan, president of the Bangladesh Principals’ Council, warned at the time that restoring the previous rules would cause the country's education system to "step backwards”.