EFT System in Action for MPO Teachers and Staff

The government has inaugurated a digital initiative to transfer the salaries, retirement, and welfare benefits of MPO-enlisted teachers and staff directly to their bank accounts through the Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) system. This new system was launched on Wednesday at an event held at the International Mother Language Institute by Education Advisor Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud.

During the event, it was announced that under the EFT system, MPO-enlisted teachers and staff will receive their salaries on the first working day of every month. They will be notified of salary-related details via SMS, and institution heads will be able to view salary summaries online. Retirement and welfare benefits for private educational institution teachers and staff will also be distributed through the EFT system. A portion of their salaries—6% for retirement and 4% for welfare—will be deposited into respective funds, and retirees will receive their benefits directly in their bank accounts. Applicants can track the progress of their applications at each stage through SMS updates.

There are also plans to connect the Directorate of Madrasa and Technical Education to the iBAS++ (Integrated Budget and Accounting System) platform and introduce Personal Ledger (PL) accounts for public universities to facilitate salary disbursement via EFT.

The inauguration ceremony was presided over by the Director General of the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education, Professor A.B.M. Rezaul Karim. Special guests included the Education Ministry’s Special Assistant Professor Dr. M. Aminul Islam, Senior Secretary of the Secondary and Higher Education Division Siddiq Zobayer, Secretary of the Technical and Madrasa Education Division Dr. K.M. Kabirul Islam, and NCTB Chairman Dr. A.K.M. Riazul Hasan.

Additional Secretary of the Finance Division and National Program Director of the Strengthening Public Financial Management Program to Enable Service Delivery, Bilquis Jahan Rimi, presented a detailed briefing on EFT during the event.

The presentation highlighted that iBAS++, an initiative of the Finance Division under the Strengthening Public Financial Management Program, is being utilized to simplify financial management. Through this system, financial services for government employees, retirees, and social security beneficiaries are expedited. The EMIS platform stores teacher and staff data, which is used to create payrolls for EFT salary transfers via iBAS++.

For the 2024-25 fiscal year, a budget allocation of BDT 13,495.16 crore has been made for the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education. This includes BDT 4,329.97 crore for private colleges and BDT 9,165.19 crore for schools. The Madrasa Education Directorate and the Technical Education Directorate have been allocated BDT 5,073.58 crore and BDT 450 crore, respectively.

Currently, there are 19,847 MPO-enlisted institutions in the country, with a total of 398,068 MPO-enlisted teachers and staff. Among them, 2,828 colleges employ 68,949 teachers and 28,257 staff; 17,478 schools employ 211,443 teachers and 89,419 staff; 8,229 madrasas employ 138,559 teachers and 42,134 staff; and 2,282 technical institutions employ 16,557 teachers and 5,564 staff.

The government expects that the new EFT system will ensure significant savings in time and cost for MPO-enlisted teachers while promoting financial transparency and improving cash management in the education sector.