The Appellate Division on Thursday ordered the authorities concerned to take steps to ensure that the headmasters of government primary schools across the country get the status of second-class gazetted officers in the 10th grade.

The court ordered the authorities to ensure that approximately 30,000 headmasters get the same status and benefits as second-class gazetted officers from March 9, 2014.

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A 4-bench of the Appellate division led by Chief Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed, passed the order.

Senior lawyer Barrister Salah Uddin Dolon, representing the teachers, said that the benefits will be applicable from the date of the initial announcement in 2014.

The move follows years of legal battles.

In 2018, 45 headmasters, including the president of the Bangladesh Government Primary School Headmaster Association, Riaz Parvez, filed a writ in the High Court, seeking the implementation of the 2014 government announcement.

On 9th March 2014, then prime minister Sheikh Hasina declared that headmasters of government primary schools would be upgraded to second-class status.

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However, the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education later set the 11th grade for trained headmasters and the 12th grade for untrained ones, instead of the promised 10th grade.

After the writ petition, the High Court issued a rule, and in February 2019, it ordered that headmasters (both trained and untrained) be promoted to the 10th grade.

Barrister Dolon said that although the position of headmaster was initially classified as second-class, the pay scale did not match this status, with trained headmasters placed in the 11th grade and untrained ones in the 12th.

This discrepancy was deemed unjust, as all other second-class employees were placed in the 10th grade.