A long-nine-year wait of the teachers and employees of schools and colleges run under the governing body is coming to an end today as the government is going to announce formally that it would bring  many new educational institutions under the Monthly Payment Order (MPO). 

Amid continuous movement by the teachers and employees of the non-government institutions, the government has taken the decision.

These institutions have been eligible to get the MPO facilities after a scrutiny by the ministry.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to announce the names of the institutions at a programme at Ganabhaban in the capital.

Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni on Tuesday confirmed the matter that some institutions would come under the MPO process.

She said the qualified institutes will enjoy the MPO facilities from July 2019 though the announcement of fresh names of the MPO-listed institutes delayed due to different complexities.

But she refrains from mentioning the number of institutions which will get the MPO facilities.

Of the 2627 institutions, 1,548 are schools and colleges under secondary and higher education division while 1,079 institutions are from Technical and Madrasah Education division.

Some 359 Dakhil madrasahs, 127 Alim Madrasahs, 42 Fazil Madrasahs and 29 Kamil Madrasahs have also been on the list.

Some 129 technical institutions -- 62 Agriculture, 48 vocational (independent), 129 are vocational (included) institutions, will also be brought under the facility.

Apart from this, 175 HSC BM institutions (independent) and 108 BM (included) are also on the list.

After assuming office in 2008 general elections, Awami League brought 1624 institutions under the MPO list in 2010. But since then, no new school has been brought under the MPO.

In June, 2018, the Education Ministry published the MPO Policy-2018 and sought applications from the institutions seeking MPO and received applications online from the institutions.

After scrutinizing the applications, the ministry finalised a list of eligible institutions in line with the MPO policy and sent it to Prime Minister’s Office on August 8 for approval. But the PM office sent it back to the Education Ministry and asked the latter to carry out further scrutiny.

Later, the list of eligible institutions was sent to PMO for final approval and the PM approved it.

More than 4 lakh teachers and employees of 26,340 secondary schools, colleges, madrasas and technical institutes are getting the MPO benefits at present.

Meanwhile, several thousand teachers and employees of government-recognised educational institutions have long been demanding MPO facilities, claiming that there are errors in the existing MPO policy-2018.

Talking to daily sun, Non-MPO Educational Institutions Teacher-employees Federation President Principal Golum Mahmudunnabi Dollar said, “We believe that Prime Minister will not give any announcement depriving us.”

Claiming that the demonstration of the federation is still running, he said on Tuesday night that “We will listen to Prime Minister’s announcement tomorrow (Wednesday) and then we will take decision after discussing it with the executive committee.”