University Teachers Link (UTL) has protested against the exclusion of candidates who were finally recommended for the recruitment of assistant teachers in government primary schools on various allegations in the name of verification.
In a joint statement on Saturday, the organization’s president, Professor Dr. Md. Atiyar Rahman, and general secretary, Professor Dr. Jubai Muhammad Ehsan, said that all the excluded candidates had passed the oral examination on merit in the recruitment process and were finally recommended. If they were later excluded in the name of verification, the specific reasons and legal basis for this should be made public. Because verification can never become a tool for political-ideological discrimination, harassment, or selection.
UTL leaders said that in post-July uprising Bangladesh, allegations of depriving someone of a job due to their political views, personal beliefs or differences with the government are very worrying. Depriving someone of a government job based on mere assumptions, political identity or differences of opinion without proof of specific crimes or legal incompetence is in no way acceptable. The leaders said that for the past 17 years, jobs and futures of citizens have been taken away by separating political ideology in the name of secret reports, which cannot continue. If the appointment of a candidate who has been finally recommended based on a report by a government agency is to be cancelled, the concerned candidate must be given due opportunity to discuss the legal basis and rationale of that report.
In the statement, the leaders also mentioned that in recent times, various questions have been raised around the initiative to increase the marks in the oral examination in government recruitment. It is the responsibility of the government to ensure a completely transparent, impartial and accountable recruitment system after July and to ensure that government jobs are not a reward for loyalty to any political party.
UTL has immediately called for the verification reports of the rejected recommended candidates to be re-reviewed, proper evidence of the allegations presented, and re-investigation if necessary to complete the appointment.
UTL leaders believe that this discrimination and ideological selection process in the name of verification after the July uprising is completely contradictory to the aspirations of a new Bangladesh based on justice.